Gamer Within 2: Generations
by Sanne-chan
Summary: Weary of her annoying little brother, mandatory martial arts lessons and monthly trips to the hairdresser, Robin escapes the drudgery of daily life by secretly playing videogames, despite her parents’ ban. After all… could they really be that dangerous?
1. Foolish curiosity

**A/N: **I rewrote this chapter about eight times, doubted myself, then rewrote it another eight times. Now I'm just going to post it, because if I try to get it absolutely perfect, I fear no one will ever get to see it. XD

I want to thank everyone for the wonderful reviews on Gamer Within, part one. They cheered me up and motivated me to write on. I'm very thankful to everyone who has taken the time to leave some feedback, no matter how short (though I really like the long ones, of course). I hope I'll see you all again in this sequel… the adventure continues!

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**Chapter 1: ****Foolish curiosity**

"AAAAAARGH!!! Give that back right now, you little weasel!"

"No way, Robin! Finders, keepers!"

I narrowed my yellow eyes at my little brother, who was jumping on the couch, meeting my glare with a mischievous smirk.

"Kai," I growled, balling my fist and taking a threatening step in his direction. "If you dare read _one_ page of that diary, mom and dad are going to have to scrape your remains off the wall with a spatula!"

"I'll risk it!" the 10-year old triumphantly called my bluff and with a devious glint in his eyes, picked the lock in exactly 0.3 seconds.

"Dear diary," he started reading out loud in what had to pass as a whiny impersonation of my voice. "My life sucks! My parents are, like, way overprotective of me, which is soooo totally unfair! I mean…_ come on!_ I'm 16 years old, yet mom and dad won't even let me play _video games_, because they think it's_ dangerous_! I even have to take these stupid martial arts lessons because dad says it's important I learn how to 'do battle' in case I get myself into trouble. How lame is _that_?! Also, I have cooties and all boys at school think I'm a butthead with giant zits all over her…"

"IT DOES NOT SAY THAT, YOU LITTLE FREAK!" I shrieked, making a nosedive for my journal and its smug looking thief. Unfortunately, the annoying brat jumped away at the last moment, making me collide headfirst with the couch, knocking it over, and making it crash right into the coffee table.

The_ glass_ coffee table…

"Uh oh," we both sweatdropped at the shattered remains, and as if on cue, we suddenly heard the front door of our house opening, footsteps echoing through the hall.

"Kai, Robin! We're home!" our mother called, stepping into the living room… or what was left of it.

"Close your eyes! It'll bring good luck!" My brother tried quickly, but it was already too late. As soon as her gaze fell on wreckage, all blood drained from her face and I knew we were seriously screwed.

"She started it!" Kai pointed an accusing finger at me when our father appeared in the doorway as well, the words 'you're grounded!' written all over his forehead in bright, neon letters.

"He's lying!" I exclaimed, glaring daggers at the ten-year old. "That brat sneaked into my room and stole my diary!"

"Did not!" he faked an insulted look, quickly hiding the red booklet behind his back.

"Did too, you snotnosed whelp!" I grabbed the collar of his shirt, hoisting him up to my level. "Now fork it over, and maybe, just_ maybe_, I'll let you live!"

"Mooohoooom!!!" he whined pathetically. "Robin is being a butthead again!"

"WHY YOU…!!!"

"Alright, knock it off you two!" Mom ordered sternly. "Robin, don't kill your brother. Kai, give your sister her diary back."

"Can't I beat him up first?" I pleaded. "Just a little?"

She said nothing, but the look on her face answered my question. Grudgingly, I lowered him back on solid ground, snatching my journal out of his hands.

"You two need to find a way to get along," mom continued, pointing at the broken furniture. "THAT is coming out of your allowance, and both of you are grounded until you learn to settle your differences without turning the house into a war zone!"

"But… but… you can't _ground_ me!" I protested. "I was going to the first showing of that new horror mov… eh… a friend's house to help her with her homework tonight! How can you expect me to cancel?!"

"Yeah, me too!" Kai chimed in, though I was pretty sure he hadn't been listening to a word I said.

"No buts," she put her hands on her hips. "Both of you go to your rooms for a time-out!"

"Daahaaad?!" I tilted my head slightly and looked at him with the best puppy eyes I could master, but for some reason, he didn't melt into a gooey puddle of fatherly love. Crap…

"Listen to your mother, girl," he said sternly, making clear there was no room for discussion. Goodbye movie tickets, hello long night of agonizing boredom.

Sigh…

With one last scowl at my parents, I stomped upstairs and into my bedroom, slamming the door shut behind me. I could hear Kai scurrying in his own room, which was right next to mine. Thank god we didn't have to share! I don't think I would have lived…

Grumbling, I flopped down on my bed, my hands folded under my head. A high-pitched chirp caught my attention and I smiled, getting up again.

"Hey there, Socrates," I greeted the excited parakeet, letting him out of his cage. I'm crazy about birds, a quirk mom says I inherited from dad. She likes them too, but won't let him fill the entire living room with little avian buddies. He already has five canaries, two parrots and of course his latest addition: Kerena, a young cockatoo with a shriek that can almost burst your eardrums. Needless to say, there's never a dull moment in our house. Or a quiet one.

Well…_ almost_ never.

"I'm so BORED!" I complained out loud to Socrates, who just cocked his head and landed on my nose, pulling at my red hair which reached just past my shoulders. It looked very natural, and very few people knew I went to a hairdresser every month to have the roots bleached and dyed. It cost me an arm and a leg, but I had managed to screw up about every do-it-yourself kit on the market, and it was better than walking around looking like an Easter egg.

Believe it or not, but my real hair color is a flaming purple, yet another trait I've gotten from my dad. I have_ no_ idea why, since it's supposed to be genetically impossible to be born with such an unnatural hue. Then again, I suppose dad is just a bit of an oddball. He talks stiffly, sometimes stares blankly at the skies for HOURS, and I once even caught him sitting at our computer, googling the phrase: 'how to parent human children'. Don't get me wrong, I loved my father to death (except when he grounded me, of course), but sometimes it felt like he was hiding something from us.

"Ouch! Hey, quit it, boy!" I yelped, putting the mischievous parakeet back in his cage. Not that he would stay in there for long: no matter what I tried, the little ball of feathers always found a way to escape.

I searched my cabinet for some bird feed, knowing that would keep him busy for a while. Once that was taken care of, a sly smirk appeared on my face as I snuck out of my room, and up the attic.

I loved videogames and played them anytime I got the chance. Which wasn't very often, since mom and dad were dead set against them and didn't allow me to even _think_ about buying one. I had asked them numerous times for a reason, but they just shook their heads and said it was too dangerous. What _really_ bothered me though, was the fact that they were about the biggest hypocrites on this side of the equator!

One time when they had gone out for dinner, I had gone up to the attic and searched through some of the old boxes that were stored there. They were filled with things like books, old toys from when me and Kai were little, Christmas ornaments, stuff like that. But one particular box had caught my attention: it was stored way in the back and inside it was a chest with a lock. Fortunately, I had learned a thing or two from my younger brother and eventually managed to pick it open. It was labeled: 'memories', and inside I found a dried bouquet of flowers, some old wedding pictures and... a playstation 2. I kid you not: hidden underneath all that boring sentimental stuff, was a dusty game console along with a controller and a trilogy box of a game series called 'Prince of Persia'. The machine must've been well over twenty years old, but when I took it to my room and hooked it up to my TV, I was surprised to see the device was still working.

Every now and then when the coast was clear, I would take the aged console from the chest and indulge myself by playing through the adventure that was 'the Sands of Time' and it's successor, 'Warrior Within'. Though the games were technological inferior compared to modern-day's releases, I caught myself falling in love with the incredible story. A Persian prince, an Indian princess, monstrous demons, a mysterious empress and the ability to control time itself. It was worth it staying up all night (and wearing headphones so my parents wouldn't wake up) to finish them, since there was no memory card included. Seeing as the Playstation 9 would already be available in stores less than two months from now, I doubted Sony still made memory cards for older models such as this one.

Unfortunately, the lack of a memory card and having to sneak around my parents, made for very slow progress. But last week, I had finally managed to finish Warrior Within and now it was time to start 'the Two Thrones'; the third and last game in the series. Woohoo!

I tiptoed up the stairs and entered the dusty attic. Giddy with excitement, I turned on the light… only to find a certain brat rummaging through the chest!

"HA!!! Busted, you little twerp!" I exclaimed triumphantly, snatching the game console from his hands.

"Ah, come on, sis!" he pleaded. "Don't rat me out to mom and dad! I want to know how the story ends!"

I blinked at this, suddenly noticing he was holding the trilogy box.

"You've been playing Prince of Persia as well?"

"Yeah, I just finished Warrior Within and… hey, wait a minute! 'As well'?! You've been touching their stuff too!" he pointed an accusing finger at me, smirking like he had just found the ultimate secret to world domination, eternal life and an endless supply of candy bars.

"Uh, well… that is to say," I stammered nervously while the victorious grin on his face grew wider and wider. Fortunately, an idea sparked in my head.

"Listen up, Kai," I said in a hushed voice. "You tell on me, I'll tell on you, and neither of us will find out what happens in the Two Thrones. But if you keep your mouth shut, I'll do the same and we can take turns playing the game together. What do you say?"

"Deal!" he nodded eagerly. "Now let's go before they catch us!"

I smirked and grabbed the controller from the chest, sneaking down the stairs and re-entering my room as quietly as I could. Kai followed me inside, closing the door behind me and turning on my TV.

"Come on sis! Plug it in!" he urged, hyper with excitement. Oh, I was _so_ going to regret this…

"Okay, okay! Keep your pants on!" I rolled my eyes, hooking up the console and flipping the power switch. "Just for the record: I get to play first."

"Hey! No fair!" he protested, but an icy glare from me was enough to shut him up. The little brat was lucky I'd let him live for stealing my journal, and the ten-year old knew very well he was on _my_ territory and in no position to make demands.

"Hand over the disk, will you?" I asked, but he kept fumbling with the container, his brow furrowing in frustration.

"The disk… it's stuck or something!" he said, picking fruitlessly at the little plastic clamps that kept it in place.

"Stop fooling around, you'll break it!" I snapped, taking the trilogy box from his hands. Annoyed, I sighed and grabbed the disk with the intention to pull it out myself. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a lot harder than it looked.

"H-hey… it _is_ stuck!"

"Lemme try again!"

"Let go, doofus! You're just gonna drop it!"

"Am not!!!"

We each held one end of the box and pulled, causing it to slip out of our hands, the disk popping out and landing on the carpet with a soft thud.

"Now look what you did!" I turned to my little brother, who just stuck his tongue out at me when he thought I wasn't looking. Normally I would've wiped the floor with him, but right now I was too curious about the game to care. I picked up the silvery disk, but almost dropped it again when it suddenly turned golden, a strange glow surrounding it. The hell?!

"Wow, how'd you do _that_?!" Kai gawked at me, while I just stood there, the game still in my hands.

"I… don't know," I stammered, staring at the gold colored disk with wide eyes, my brain still tying to determine if the signals it had just received from my optic nerves were real.

"Maybe it's some kind of special coating?" he suggested, poking at the gold metal, the odd glow flaring up and dying down again every time he touched the disk.

"Let's just put it in and start the game," I shuddered. I had this weird feeling in my gut, as if I was about to make a very, very bad move. Then again, I didn't want my little brother to think I was chickening out, did I? No way!

Determined, I inserted the glowing disk, waiting for the aged machine to pick it up. A familiar buzzing sound filled my room and the startup screen slowly faded into view. I lowered the volume so our parents wouldn't hear the Prince's (no doubt corny) battle cries and took the controller, starting a new game.

I waited for a chance to choose the difficulty level, but instead a movie immediately started playing.

"Oh man, it's just like the Sands of Time again!" I complained, very disappointed that Ubisoft hadn't added that feature like they had done with Warrior Within.

"No, it's not!" Kai panicked, flipping through the instruction booklet. "It says here you're supposed to pick a difficulty level before the game begins!"

"But then why…"

I trailed off when I looked back at the screen again. I saw a blond woman tied to a stone slab, a frightened look on her face. Next to her was no one other than Zervan, the evil Vizier from the first game. But wasn't he supposed to be dead?! And who was that woman? She looked like the Empress of Time, but had blond hair and blue eyes. What the hell was going on?!

"Hey, that woman kinda looks like mom!" Kai pointed out, his eyes also glued to the screen. "Only… well, you know… _old!_"

"You think _everyone_ over twelve is old," I snorted, then blinked when the woman suddenly looked straight at us and began mouthing something.

"What is she saying?" Kai scratched his head while I scrambled for the remote and turned up the volume.

"… _the disk!"_ she finished, worry visible in her eyes.

"Can you repeat that?" I asked, then smacked myself on the forehead for talking to a videogame character and expecting her to answer. Imagine the horrified look on my face when she actually _did._

"_Kai! Robin! Remove the disk!"_

"Whoa…" I blinked, my jaw dropping when she spoke our names.

"You can hear us!?" Kai exclaimed, his eyes the size of dinner plates.

"_There's no time!"_ she urged, seriously creeping me out. _"Remove the disk and sever the connection before…"_

Suddenly the Vizier smirked evilly, holding the Dagger of Time in his right hand. I didn't even want to _know_ how he got his boney fingers on that thing.

"_Talking to yourself__, Empress?"_ he asked the woman, his raspy voice sending shivers down my spine.

"So it _is_ Kaileena!" I said, more to myself than to Kai, who was equally baffled.

"Uh sis, maybe we should do what she says," he squeaked nervously, and I couldn't help but agree. Dad often sighed that I had inherited my mother's 'foolish curiosity', but I knew a disaster-in-the-making when I saw one.

I reached for the Playstation and pushed the 'eject' button, but the tray refused to move. Uh oh…

"Kaileena!" we suddenly heard someone yell and the camera shifted to the Prince of Persia, running to her rescue. Unfortunately, a female ninja appeared on the scene and lashed out at him with what looked like some kind of dagger tail. It coiled around his arm, the blades burying themselves deep into his flesh. Another guard jabbed the Prince with his spear, pushing him onto the floor against a wall, hopelessly trapped and barely able to move.

"Robin, what are you waiting for?!" Kai yelped. "Remove the disk!"

"I can't!" I panicked, feverishly ramming the tiny button. "It's stuck! The tray won't eject!"

"Then turn it off!"

Wondering why I didn't think of that one, I flipped the small switch on the back of the machine, but to both our horror, nothing happened. The device was still running, and the camera zoomed in on the Vizier, laughing cruelly at the injured royal.

"_Ah, you must be the Prince of Persia,"_ he gloated. _"Come home at last?"_

Oh man… not good! Not good!!!

I felt my blood run cold when he turned back to Kaileena, brandishing the magical Dagger. Oh no, he wouldn't…

"_I believe I have something of yours,"_ he said, an evil smile spreading across his face.

Oh yes, he would…

"KAI! HURRY!!!" I yelled at my little brother, who was sitting closest to the electrical outlet. "CUT THE POWER!!!"

The ten-year old jumped up and leaped for the cord, but before he could yank it out, a blinding flash filled my room. I caught a brief glimpse of Zervan stabbing himself with the dagger before my television began to shake, floating up and hovering in mid-air, a golden light shining through every opening. Acting purely on instinct, I dived at Kai and pushed him to the ground, covering his body with my own.

I could hear the Prince scream… the Vizier cackling madly… and after that…

All hell broke loose.

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**A/N:** Digital cookies to everyone who gets the meanings behind their names! XD 


	2. On the run

**A/N:** Glad to see most of you have reviewed again XD. Thanks!!!

And now, the moment you've all been waiting for… or not: the names! You got it right: Robin is named after her father (a robin is a small bird) and it's also a gender neutral name, like her mother's. Kai is named after Kaileena, his grandmother.

Enjoy, and a happy 2008!

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**Chapter 2:**** On the run**

"Keep your head down!" I yelled at my little brother above the howling winds. I held him with one hand, clinging with my other to the carpet as if it would offer me protection from the storm that raged through my bedroom and blew under my door, whirling through the rest of the house. My mind vaguely registered that these were in fact the Sands of Time bursting out of my TV, but I just couldn't believe it. Was this really happening?!

The winds intensified, the sands spreading at an alarming rate. I had a vision of the Vizier, stranded in the middle of a shopping mall, looking equally baffled as I was. What really freaked me out though, was that he had turned into some kind of cold-colored demon. The Dagger's magical touch, no doubt. But… where _was_ the Dagger? Did the Prince get it? Oh god… remind me never to say I'm bored out loud again!

I heard panicked screams and yelps outside, but didn't dare to look. Chaos ensued wherever the sands went and I knew it would only be a matter of time before the entire world would be shrouded in a cloud of golden dust.

After what seemed like an eternity, the raging storm finally began to lay down and eventually subsided. I got back to my feet, dusting off my clothes. I helped Kai up, brushing some sand from his spiky blond hair. He had taken more to mom's side of the family, though we both shared dad's yellow eyes.

"Kai, are you okay?" I asked the boy, but he just gawked at me, his mouth hanging open.

"Robin… your eyes!" he stuttered. "They're glowing!"

"Not just mine," I answered, taking a closer look at my brother. Oh dear… this couldn't be good.

"Did we turn into zombies?" he asked. "Ya know… like in the Sands of Time?"

"I don't think so," I mused. "At least… I don't feel like snarling and going on random killing sprees."

"Aww, man!" he pouted. "That would've been so _awesome_!"

I fell down animestyle and smacked him upside the head, rolling my eyes at his naivety. I looked around and assessed the damage to my room: not a single piece of furniture was standing, my pillow had been ripped to shreds and my TV had been reduced to a pile of smoldering ash. The Playstation had mysteriously survived, but I didn't dare touch that creepy thing. With my luck, It'd probably just explode in my face.

I froze when I suddenly heard a series of strange noises coming from the living room downstairs. It sounded like a surprised shriek… the rustling of feathers… the clashing of metal… and an insulted, female voice exclaiming: 'Oh, hell no! I'm not wearing_ this_ again!'

"What the…" I blinked, slowly opening my bedroom door and tiptoeing outside, motioning Kai to follow and make as less noise as possible. I had put exactly one foot into the hallway when I heard someone walking up the stairs. We jumped and quickly scrambled back inside my room, closing the door shut. Oh dear god… whoever that was, her voice did NOT sound human!

"I can't believe I'm trapped in this form again," we heard her mutter. I pressed my ear against the door to listen closer and heard her entering my parent's room, which was right across mine.

"'We must find out how the Sands have returned', he says," she continued to grumble in a strange, raspy voice. "Well, _excuse_ me! I'm not 16 anymore, no way in hell am I going outside dressed like _this_!"

Whoever this woman was, she was now rummaging through my mother's closet. I could hear her opening a drawer, followed by the rustling of clothes.

"Hey, you thief!" Kai suddenly yelled, bolting through the door and into the hallway.

"KAI! Stay here, you moron!" I ran after him, but the impulsive boy had already opened my parents' bedroom door.

"You keep your slimy hands of my mom's…" he began, but trailed off, and both our jaws dropped when we came eye to eye with the burglar.

Oh…

My…

Friggin'…

God…

"It's a Harem Girl!" Kai exclaimed excited, staring bug-eyed at the scantily clad sand creature. "COOL!"

"_Not_ cool!" I panicked, grabbing my little brother and dragging him down the stairs. I had no problem beating them in the Sands of Time, but I had been controlling the Prince back then! The Prince, as in: a strong, trained, _armed_ warrior.

"No! Wait!" she yelled after us, only encouraging me to run faster. There was a sand creature in our house! There was a sand creature in our house! Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!!!

"Sis, she's right behind us!" Kai squeaked, a lot less brave now that he had also realized we A) had no weapons, and as result B) were about to get clobbered.

I jumped off the stairs and reached for door to the living room, hoping we could find something in there to kill that thing, or at least knock her out. But the minute I touched the handle, the door was opened from the other side and a dark figure towered over us, brandishing a blade that had forced me to start over my Warrior Within game many times before. My mind went blank, every synapse in my brain short-circuiting when it slowly dawned on me that I was standing face to face with no one other than the terrifying guardian of the Garden Tower.

"Child, do not fear-" he reached for me, but when the tips of his fingers brushed my shoulder, my pupils turned to pinpricks and all sense of calmness went completely out the window.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHH!!!"

Kai and I both screamed our heads off and made a mad dash for the front door. I was beyond hysterical, but somehow managed to find the good sense to grab my mother's purse on the way out.

"Come on, come on!" I panicked, feverishly searching through her stuff. They had to be in here somewhere!

"Robin!" Kai yelped, frantically pointing at the entrance to our house. The Crow Master emerged from the narrow doorway, his glowing eyes boring into ours.

"Look for mom's car keys!" I shouted at the ten-year old, tossing him the small bag. I had always complained to dad about the mandatory martial arts classes, but needless to say, I was now glad he had made me go.

"HIIYAAAA!!!" I yelled a lot more bravely than I felt, blindly charging at the towering sand creature. He tried to speak, but I jumped and with a mid-air karate kick to his chest, send him flying back into the hallway and crashing into the Harem Girl that was close behind.

"Unfortunate that you have fallen so easily," I smirked, then blinked in surprise: where had _that_ come from?

"Sis, I found them! I found the keys!"

I whirled around and bolted for the car, not daring to look over my shoulder.

"Hurry! Get in!" I ordered, nearly dropping the keys while I tried to start the engine.

"You better buckle up, Kai!"

"Why?"

"Because I just remembered I have _no_ idea how to drive this thing!"

His face paled considerable while he anxiously eyed the gears.

"Sis! You can't just-!"

"Listen Kai!" I cut him off, glaring at the young boy. "In the past five minutes, The Sands of Time were unleashed onto our world, the Vizier has set up camp next to the McDonalds and there are sand creatures _in our living room!_ And you're worried about my lack of a drivers license?!"

"No, I'm just trying to tell you the car is still in reverse!"

"It is?"

"Yeah! I always play 'Need for Speed' at a friend's house! I recognize the controls… I think."

"You_ think?!_"

"Yeah… I mean no… I mean… Look, you can't ask me how to drive a car!" he threw his hands up in exasperation. "I'm only ten! I don't even know how the blender works!"

We heard the sounds of footsteps and Kai's eyes widened in horror when the Harem Girl ran out the door and rapped on our rearview window.

"Kids, get out of the car!" she shouted, waving her arms menacingly. I turned around and stuck my tongue out at her, satisfied when I was met with an insulted scowl. I wanted to make an… ahem…. more obscene gesture at first, but decided to tone it down a bit because of my little brother. He was already enough of a brat as he was, no need to even further ruin his impressionable young mind.

"Sis, I really don't think you should have pissed her off," he tapped my shoulder nervously.

"Calm down, you wimp," I smirked when she started pounding on the glass. "Harem Girls are the weakest sand creatures of all three games combined! There's no way she can get in."

"She can't," Kai yelped, "but HE can!!!"

I turned back to the wheel again and nearly died when I came eye to eye with the Crow Master standing on our hood.

"Girl, you and the boy have exactly three seconds to exit that vehicle, or else I shall remove you!"

"We get a warning?" I blinked. "Well, that's a first…"

"Who cares?!" Kai panicked. "Drive! Drive! Drive!!!"

"One…"

"Oh god… eh…eh… alright, let's see here… maybe if I push this thingy…"

"Two…"

"SIS!!!"

"Don't rush me! Don't rush me!!!" I exclaimed, nervously eyeing the many, many controls. Oh man, what the hell had I been _thinking?!_

"Child, this is your last warning!" the Crow Master announced, raising his blade and preparing to smash the windshield.

"Ah…uh… Eeny, meeny, miny, moe, catch a tiger by the- "

"Three!"

"ROBIN! FLOOR IT!!!"

The sand creature poised his sword to shatter the glass, and a surge of adrenaline rushed through my veins. Grasping the wheel so tightly my knuckles turned white, I closed my eyes shut and hit the gas pedal, the wheels screeching in protest.

A startled shriek told me that the Crow Master had los his balance and fallen off the car. I opened my eyes just in time to spot our neighbors' fence, yanking at the wheel as fast as I could in a desperate attempt to avoid it. The car swerved to the right, and I somehow managed to steer it back on the road. I had no idea if it was even in the right gear, but this was not the moment to care. We were_ moving_ and that alone was already more than I had hoped for.

"Wow, you rock sis!" Kai cheered when I successfully steered around Mrs. Green's mailbox, only barely scraping the old bat's prized Azaleas.

"Yeah, I do, don't I?" I grinned, tossing my hair back like they always do in the movies. I didn't have the heart to tell him I didn't know how to use the breaks… I still had to figure that part out.

"Well, we sure… uh oh."

"Uh oh?" I repeated, raising an eyebrow. "What's wrong?"

"That Harem Girl is still standing in our yard, but I don't see the Crow Master! Where'd he go!?"

"Don't worry, that thing probably gave up," I said, still a bit shaky from our chaotic get-away. "There's no way he can catch up with our… AAAAAAAAAAH!!!!"

I screamed my lungs out when a flock of crows suddenly landed on our windshield and transformed into the avian demon.

"Children! Stop this vehicle! You will harm yourselves!"

"And you _wont_?!" I exclaimed, my mind not believing the signals it had just received from my ears. "Just what color stupid do you think we are?!"

He tried to answer, but I could almost see a light bulb appearing above my brother's head. Before the Crow Master could speak, Kai reached for a small lever and a stream of window washer fluid sprayed on the towering sand creature. With a pained shriek, he turned back into a flock of birds and lost his grip on the windshield wipers.

"Sand creatures can't stand water!" Kai stated, grinning from ear to ear, proud that his plan had worked.

"Nice one, bro," I smirked, rounding a corner and disappearing from their view. "When we get to the city, remind me to buy us a couple of super soakers."

"The city?" he asked with wide eyes. "But what about our house? What about our parents?! We have to fight those monsters!"

I sighed, letting off on the gas pedal a bit. We had lost them, and driving without having followed one single lesson was already dangerous enough _without_ racing through the streets at a gazillion miles per hour.

"I don't know what's going on here anymore than you do, but I haven't seen any bodies on our way out. My guess is that a group of sand creatures took mom and dad as prisoners and left those two goons behind to look for us. If we want to free them and reclaim our house, we need to stay focused, get to the city and find help. I don't have my cell with me, and I'm a bit weary of asking any of our neighbors if we can use their phone to call the police. I heard screaming outside when the sands escaped from my TV, so there's a good chance their houses are already swarming with sand creatures. We need to get away from here and fast, before they spread to other blocks and consume us all."

"You're so calm, sis," he said nervously, fiddling with his seatbelt. "Aren't you scared?"

I didn't answer his question, because if I did… I knew I would lose it for sure.


	3. Hide and seek

**A/N:** Happy new-year! I don't have much else to say really… except that I'm going to have a lot of fun writing the next chapter, hehehe… XD

**P.S.**I'll be uploading chapter 3 of "Bird's Eye View" shortly, I've been putting that off for way too long XD

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**Chapter 3: Hide and seek**

I ignored the occasional startled yelp from Kai, desperately trying to keep driving in a straight line. Mom had always made it look so easy, but things turned out to be a lot more difficult now that I was sitting behind the wheel myself.

"Robin…" my brother started, "don't you think it's… well, you know… quiet?"

I nodded, glancing nervously out the window. I had expected a scene from a race game, with me feverously zigzagging through other cars, the police hot on my tail. Instead, the roads were empty, save for a few vehicles that seemed to be abandoned by their owners. There were skid marks on the asphalt, indicating that someone… or _something_ had forced them to make a sudden stop. Needless to say, it creeped me out all the way to Babylon and back.

"Hey sis, don't you think those sand creatures acted weird?"

"They're _video game characters_, Kai," I rolled my eyes, a bit annoyed by his constant yapping. "Of course they act weird!"

"That's not what I meant… I mean they talked and stuff. The Crow Master also talks in the game, but he only has a few standard phrases, and Harem Girls normally just shriek and hiss. What's the deal?"

"I dunno… maybe being transported to our world has affected them or something like that. Anyway, we should watch our backs: who knows what those things are up to."

His face paled and I felt like smacking myself with a rubber turkey. Nice one Robin, scaring a ten-year old like that.

"Sorry Kai," I apologized. "I didn't mean to-"

"I don't feel so well… I think I'm gonna throw up."

My eyes widened at that. Oh, hell no!

"Kai, I'm warning you: if you get carsick on my new shoes, the Crow Master is going to be the least of your problems!"

"Can't we pull over for just a little while?" he whined.

"No way, twerp," I snapped. "I was lucky to get this thing to move! I don't know if I can pull it off a second time."

"It's not like you have a choice, sis."

"Are you threatening me?!"

"No, but I think the car just ran out of gas."

I took a look at the fuel meter and cursed loudly when the car slowed down and came to a standstill. Kai hopped out and immediately started throwing up.

"Feel better?" I asked, trying my hardest to look away.

"Yeah, but now I'm hungry."

"We'll get a burger or something in the city," I said, my own stomach growling as well. "It should be a short walk from here."

I took his hand and began our trek down the road. It really is as they say: the enemy of my enemy is my friend. There were plenty of times when I wanted nothing more than to strangle the little bugger, but when faced with couple of pissed off sand creatures with big-ass weapons, he suddenly seemed a lot less annoying. He wasn't going to get that burger for free though…

During our walk, I began to grow more and more nervous. I saw trees in the distance, but when I blinked, they were gone. Random patches of ground beneath my feet seemed to flicker to a more rocky surface, but when I took a closer look, it just seemed like it had been my imagination playing tricks on me. I let out a sigh of relief when I saw he first buildings looming on the horizon, but my happiness soon turned to horror when we got closer and closer to the outskirts.

"Oh… my… god…" I whispered, stunned at what I saw. Kai was equally shocked, grasping my hand so hard the tips of my fingers began to tingle.

There was not a living soul in sight, but everywhere we looked there were traces of battle. A battle the unsuspecting shoppers had obviously not won. Spatters of blood stained the storefronts, black scorch marks tainting the doors. A rather girly shopping bag fluttered through the streets, its contents sprawled out on the sidewalk where it had been dropped. Had the owner ditched it, or had something taken her by surprise?

"On your knees, dog!"

Both our eyes widened when we heard a gruff and unnatural voice further down the street. I spotted a lingerie store and quickly pushed Kai inside.

"Eww! I'm not going in there! That's a girl-!"

"Shhh!" I hissed, shoving the boy in a fitting room. I crouched down beneath the windowsill, carefully taking a peek outside. What I suspected was now confirmed: a group of sand creatures marched down the street, dragging along a poor man in a waiter's outfit. He was still clutching onto a wine card, to terrified to realize it wasn't going to be of much use anymore.

"No, please!" he begged, his face pale with terror. "Let me go! I haven't done anything wrong!"

I felt my stomach turn when one of the soldiers looked my way, but I had managed to duck just in time. Part of me wanted to rush out the door and kick some sand creature butt, but I was literally paralyzed with fear.

"Take him away for turning," the larger of the monsters ordered the others before leaving himself. I had no idea what 'turning' was, but judging by the waiter's terrified cries, it was something I had better put on my must-avoid list.

I stayed hidden under the windowsill until I heard no more heavy footsteps stomping down the streets… then nearly jumped out of my skin when I felt someone tapping on my shoulder.

"Hey, check me out! I'm… BRA MAN!!!"

I smacked the ten-year old upside the head, yanking the lacy garment off his face.

"Kai, don't be a moron!" I yelled while he kept laughing hysterically.

"That was so totally worth it," he hiccupped, holding his sides.

"Ugh, you're such a dork sometimes," I snapped and walked towards the counter, taking out a phone.

"What are you doing?"

"Reporting a fire," I muttered, dialing the emergency number. "They'll never believe us if we say our city is being terrorized by monsters from a videogame, and as far as I know, water is the best weapon to take these creeps down."

"I don't know about that sis," Kai frowned. "These dudes looked different than the ones from Warrior Within. I think they're from the Two Thrones and we don't know if they share the same weakness."

"It's worth a shot," I decided and pressed the final digit. Unfortunately, I heard no dial tone and it soon became clear that the line was dead.

"Crap, looks like we're on our own," I muttered, putting down the phone. "Let's go, 'Bra Man', we need to find a computer and look up as much information on these things as possible."

"Yeah, let's…" he trailed off and his eyes glazed over and began to glow even brighter than usual. No matter what I did, he wouldn't react, until he suddenly jumped at me and pushed me to the ground behind the counter.

"KAI! What are you-!"

I froze when I heard the door open, two pair of heavy footsteps entering the store.

"Do you see anything?" a gruff voice asked and it took me all of my willpower not to squeak something like 'peep!' or 'polo!'.

"No, this place appears to be abandoned," another one answered. "Odd, I was sure I saw a shadow move."

"You are seeing things that are not there," the first snorted. "Come, we must report back to Zervan. He will have our hides if we do not return in time."

The other one laughed heartedly at this.

"Time? Hah! Time means nothing! Not anymore!"

With that they left the store, slamming the door shut on their way out.

"Kai, how did you know they were coming?" I asked with wide eyes.

"I… just did," he shakily responded. "I had a vision in my head. Like I could see into the future or something…"

"Well, stop doing it, you're creeping me out when you space out like that," I ordered nervously.

"Only if you get me that burger," he said slyly and I groaned.

"There's an internet cafe further down the street, you can stuff your face at the vending machine."

We headed out, making sure we kept our eyes peeled for sand creatures. Fortunately, it seemed like most of them had left the scene and we managed to get to the cafe without being seen.

"Alright, the connection had better not be down," I muttered, turning on one of the computers, the startup sound echoing through the abandoned building.

"Try the Ubisoft homepage," Kai urged, leaning over my shoulder. I typed in the address, but was met with a blank screen.

"The site must be down for maintenance or something," I muttered, tapping away at the keys. I tried a few other websites, but was met with the same result over and over again. Either all game related websites were mysteriously taken off-line by a Skynet-like virus, or we were not the only ones hunting the web for information. It looked like the sands had spread much further than I thought, and now every Prince of Persia fan in the city was brushing up on their knowledge.

Or maybe not just our city… just how many people did it take to overload all those websites?

"Sis…"

"Not now Kai," I cut him off, anxiously searching for smaller, unknown fan sites, hoping that one of them still had some bandwidth left to accommodate one more desperate gamer.

"Sis, I _really_ think you need to see this," my brother urged, pointing franticly out the window.

Annoyed, I stood up and turned my head, only to feel all blood draining from my face.

Outside on the street, stood a creature unlike any demon I had faced before. It seemed to be male, his hair defying all laws of gravity and his charcoal black skin engraved with glowing symbols that seemed to originate from a wound on his left arm. When I looked closer, I saw that there was a daggertail embedded in his skin, much like the one that female ninja had been wielding: no doubt this demonic fellow was another one of the Vizier's generals. Perhaps he had been sent here to keep an eye on the lower ranking soldiers, or maybe he was just on a coffee break. I had no idea what his intentions were, but I was pretty sure I didn't want to find out.

Kai and I both ducked under a desk, praying that thing wouldn't come in looking for survivors. Something in the back of my head told me I had seen that face before, but the rest of me was scared shitless and just wanted to hide until it went away.

I suppressed a startled gasp when I heard the door open and pressed my back against the desk. It was closed on three sides, the open side facing away from the demon. His metal boots made contact with the floor, the sound echoing through the abandoned building with every step he took. I had been taking martial arts classes since I was ten, but unfortunately I had only been taught how to defend myself against muggers or pushy guys who wouldn't take 'no' for an answer… and I pretty much sucked at it too. Obviously, I was not really motivated to take on a _sand creature_ with fangs, creepy tattoos and, it was only fair to admit, a really nice ass. he was standing right next to my desk and I could see his reflection in the polished floor. He scratched his chin, glowing eyes surveying the area.

"**This world is fascinating, wouldn't you say?"** he asked and my heart skipped a beat. Was he talking to me? Had I been seen?

It stayed quiet or a while and then he began to talk again, apparently to… _himself_. Oh lovely, a nutty sand creature with a deadly weapon embedded in his arm. Just what I needed.

"**Don't be like that,"** he continued, slightly irritated. **"Look around you, Prince! So much to conquer, so many to slaughter! Oh, I do believe I will enjoy myself here."**

_Prince?!_

I could hear Kai gasp under the desk next to me and the metal footsteps came to a halt. Uh oh…

"**No Prince, it was not our imagination playing tricks on us. Someone else is here… what? Leave now? Come now Prince, plenty of innocents have died already at the hands of Zervan's ****army. What does it matter if I use a few survivors for perfecting my combat skills? It will aid us in our victory! Think of their sacrifice as one for the greater good…"**

I thought I was going to pass out when he continued to walk and stopped right in front of me, the only thing between us a ragged office chair that provided very little cover. I clamped my hands over my mouth when he turned his back to me, his daggertail hanging lazily from his forearm and touching the ground near my feet. Oh Buddha, Vishnu, whoever's up there: please don't let him look down!

"**Come out and play, little civilians,"** he cooed, honey dripping off his voice. **"I won't hurt you… **_**much**_**."**

I couldn't help but roll my eyes and let out a snort: dear god, that creep was an even worse liar than Kai!

My amusement was short-lived when I realized what I had done. My eyes widened when his head jerked in my direction, his glowing eyes meeting mine and a pointy toothed grin spreading across his face.

"**Oh, goody****… target practice!"**


	4. True colors

**A/N:** I'm uploading this from my parents' computer, since mine crashed. Sigh… at least I have my Alphasmart. I love that thing! Sure beats a bulky laptop when it comes to writing! (end shameless plug)

Enjoy!

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**Chapter 4: True colors**

Something strange happened when I came eye to eye with the dark demon: where any normal person would've frozen on the spot, I managed to curl into a ball and roll underneath his legs before the daggertail smashed my hiding place into pieces. I jumped to my feet and quickly backed away, trying to stay out of his range. The creature was surprised for a moment, then his eyes flared excitedly.

"**Ooh, a challenge!" **he grinned, flashing me a pair of hail white fangs.

"Who are you?" I snapped, hiding my fear. "What do you want from me?"

I could see Kai from the corner of my eye, still hidden under a desk: the demon had not spotted him yet, and I hoped things would stay that way. Twerp or not, he was still my brother and if anyone was going to behead him, it was going to be me.

"**Just a little fun,"** he cooed in a distorted voice, closing the distance between us.

"Like you 'had fun' with the rest of the city?" I snapped, assuming a defensive stance. Like hell would I show this thing I was afraid!

"**Oh, that wasn't me,"** he shrugged indifferently. **"I would have, but the Vizier's army beat me to it. A shame, really, I could've used a warm-up… though I'm sure you'll do just fine!"**

Before I could react, he lashed out at me, the daggertail nearly cutting my leg. I backflipped away, diving behind the counter when he tried to strike a second time.

"You're not with the Vizier?!" I asked, rolling away when he jumped over the counter as well and continued his assault. Knowledge was power and I needed every edge I could get against this freak.

"**Don't insult me, wench!"** he scoffed, baring his teeth. **"That traitor has taken what is rightfully mine! He will die… slowly and painfully!"**

"Then why the hell are you attacking _me_?!"

He narrowed his eyes and suddenly lunged at me with breakneck speed. Before I could even gasp, he grabbed my neck and forcefully pinned me against the wall.

"**Don't play coy with me, girl,"** he snarled, his nails pricking in my skin. **"You might not **_**look**_** like a brute, but I **_**know**_** you're one of Zervan's abominations. I can see the sands in your eyes!"**

"Look who's talking, mister Glow-in-the-dark!" I shrieked, not believing what I was hearing.

"Let go of my sister, you jerk!" Kai yelled while he ran towards the demon and fruitlessly began kicking against his metal boots. The demon just frowned and with a swipe of his arm, send him crashing into the vending machine.

"KAI!" I screamed, kicking the monster in his groin as hard as I could. His eyes bulged out of his head and his grip on my neck weakened. I grabbed his arm with the intention of throwing him over my shoulder, but cut myself on the daggertail that was imbedded in his flesh. With a pained cry, I pulled back my hand and tried not to look at the blood running down my skin. Okay, so close quarter combat was out of the question. Since I had yet to learn how to fight with weapons, this pretty much meant we were screwed.

"Hey Rambo, cut the ninja-crap and fight me hand to hand! Or are you afraid to play it fair?" I dared him, hoping to tip the scales in my favor. Unfortunately, the demon just shook his head and made no attempt to remove the metal whip.

"**No can do, it's fused with the bone. Besides that…"** he grinned evilly, **"I don't **_**do**_** 'fair'."**

He whipped the deadly daggertail at me again and I barely managed to dive out of the way. I was quick… quicker than normal and it felt like I was light as a feather. With grace I never knew I possessed, my legs already moved before I even made a conscious decision to step aside, as if they instinctively anticipated the demon's next move. I swerved left and right, closing my eyes and going with the flow. I was no longer running… I was no longer fighting… I was dancing on air and it felt like the most natural thing I had ever done.

"Robin, how'd you do that?!" I heard Kai exclaim. Amazingly, he was barely scratched, but stared at me as if my head was on fire.

"Do what?" I mumbled, still in a pleasant trance.

"You're_ flying_!"

I was what?!

Waking from my daze, my eyes snapped open and I suddenly noticed that I no longer felt the floor underneath my feet. In fact, I was hovering a good twenty centimeters above it and I had no idea how I got there.

"AAAIIEEE!!! GET ME DOWN! GET ME DOWN! GET ME DOWN!" I shrieked, flailing my arms and promptly falling flat on my butt. The dark demon stared at me, his glowing eyes wide with shock.

"**Impossible…"** he uttered. **"It's only been a few months… you can't **_**possibly**_** be their child!"**

"I can't be what now?" I blinked, shakily getting back to my feet. The creature opened his mouth to answer, but he never got a chance to speak.

"Hey, you monster!" Kai yelled triumphantly, standing on top of the broken vending machine. "Hope you're thirsty!"

The demon turned around and was met with a diet Pepsi straight to the face. The boy shook another can and pulled the tab, spraying him with the sticky soda. He howled in pain and was suddenly engulfed in a black cloud that whirled around his body. Eventually the dark tornado dissolved, leaving a human man in its wake. He looked up at us in confusion, though his surprise wasn't nearly as great as ours.

"Prince?" I asked, rubbing my eyes to make sure I wasn't seeing things.

"Yes… I… I am the Prince of Persia," he answered dazed, stumbling to his feet and nearly falling over again. His gaze rested on my injured hand, his eyes widening.

"No… not again!"

"Why did you attack us?!" Kai exclaimed. "You're supposed to be the good guy!"

"I… I do not remember much. When he takes over, I lose control. My memories of that time become a blur."

"Who takes over?" I asked. "What happened to you?"

Prince tore a piece of fabric from his pants and wrapped it around my bleeding palm.

"Leave these cursed grounds," he ordered, clutching what I now saw was the Dagger of Time. "I must find the Vizier and undo the damage he has…"

He trailed off when his eyes met my own and widened in shock. Oh no… not this again!

"Before you go apeshit as well, I'm not a sand creature! At least… I don't think I am. The sands did something to us, but we're not evil! Please don't go 'king of blades' on our asses!"

The royal stayed silent, as if listening to a voice only he could hear.

"My dark side… he is speaking about your battle with him."

"I'll give you a summary: we kicked his sorry ass and he knows it," I scoffed, still mad about my hand.

"But it's only been a few months since we left the Island… unless… could it be that more time has passed in this world?"

"Uh, Prince? You officially lost me."

He snapped out of his musings and looked at me, grabbing my shoulders.

"Your mother! Is her name 'Alex'?"

"How'd you know?"

"How old are you? Where are your parents?! How many years has it been since-"

"Hey! I aint telling you nothing until you explain why you just tried to cut our heads off!" I exclaimed, pushing the royal away.

His face contorted in agony as he grasped his arm, the strange symbols glowing brightly.

"There's no time…!" he groaned, running for the exit of the cafe.

"Prince, what-!"

"Stay away from me!" he yelled, gritting his teeth. "Please! I'm not safe to be around!"

With that, he ran out the door, slamming it shut behind him. We followed the royal, but when we stepped outside, our eyes widened in horror. The Prince of Persia was nowhere to be seen… and neither was the rest of the city.

"Robin…" Kai started uneasily, "where's that ice-cream cart we passed earlier? And haven't we been to that girly underwear store before? What's it doing across the street?!"

I turned around, and felt all blood draining from my face when I saw that the internet café had disappeared… and been replaced with a thirty stories tall hotel. Oh… not good… _definitely_ not good…

"A glitch," my brother mumbled, his face pale.

"What are you talking about?" I stammered, looking in shock at our warped surroundings.

"The sands of time come from a videogame, right? What if… what if they're turning _our_ world into a game? And it's becoming unstable?"

"I don't know, and I don't _want_ to know!" I groaned, rubbing my temples to soothe an upcoming headache. "I do know that we need to find the Prince, and fast!"

"No way! He tried to kill us!"

"He's also the only one who can defeat the Vizier and save our parents, but he doesn't know his way around our time! Where he comes from, they haven't even invented electricity yet! What if tries to put his head in a microwave or something like that? We need to find him before he hurts himself!"

"But I'm tired…" he yawned, swaying on his feet. Looking up, I realized night had already fallen. The adrenaline rush from our battle was starting to wear off, and my own eyelids began to feel heavy as well. I wanted to find the royal, but knew that trying to fight off rabid sand creatures in my current state would be suicide.

"Alright squirt, let's call it a day," I yawned, fighting off the urge to just crash on the street. We walked into the hotel, which seemed to be abandoned was well, the staff no doubt taken prisoner by Zervan's minions. I grabbed a room key for the penthouse and carried Kai upstairs. The boy had nodded off against my side and no amount of prodding or wet willies could wake him up: thank Ubisoft the elevator was still working!

I walked into our suite and put him on the left side of the king-size bed, then fell down on the right side myself. I didn't even bother to take my shoes off or get under the covers: I was asleep before my head hit the pillow, something telling me that we were going to need all the energy we could get.

The Dark Prince was still out there… and I had the eerie feeling we had not seen the last of him yet.


	5. Seagulls dig me for some reason

**A/N:** I got a new computer! Woohoo! The old one turned out to be beyond saving, so I had to pillage my emergency fund to buy a new one. The school computers will not do and getting to avoid those is well worth the money. Now I just have to deal with my love-hate relationship with Windows Vista, since my programs won't work on other operating systems and I'll have to say goodbye to XP sooner or later anyway. I'm sure the shiny bugger will grow on me in time ;)

* * *

**Chapter 5: ****Seagulls dig me for some reason**

"_Help me.."_

I groggily opened my eyes, a strange voice waking me from my sleep.

"_Help me…"_

I sat up and looked at my surroundings: I was sitting on a desolate beach, behind me a giant fortress that looked very familiar. Wait a minute… I knew this place…

"The Island of Time!" I said to myself. "How did I get here? Is this for real?"

"_Help me…"_

My vision blurred and I was floating in a black void. I squinted my eyes and could make out a glowing figure in the distance. I made my way towards it and recognized the woman as the blond Kaileena. Her face was contorted in fear, as if she was staring death itself in the face. Suddenly, her face warped into that of the Vizier, who laughed wickedly at my shocked expression…

"_Remember what you are,"_ he said, then morphed again into a smug looking Dark Prince. He cackled madly, and whipped the daggertail at me. I could barely see a flash reflecting off the razor-sharp blades before the deadly weapon descended and struck my neck…

"AAAARGH!!!"

With a scream, I bolted upright, my heart pounding against my ribcage. I looked to my left and saw that Kai was still sleeping like a log. A quick glance at the clock told me it was still early, about six in the morning, and knowing I wouldn't be able to get back to sleep anytime soon, I got up and headed for the bathroom. I was sticky with sweat and longed for a shower.

I took off my clothes and stepped into cabin, enjoying the warm water that ran down my skin and soothed my aching muscles. I grabbed a small bottle of shampoo, hoping it would be enough to wash the dirt out of my hair. Fortunately, the red dye was permanent, though my purple roots were already beginning to show. It had been over a month since my last visit to the salon, but I knew that right now, I had bigger things to worry about.

As I worked the shampoo into a rich lather and rinsed it out, my mind began to wander. I had flown… hadn't I? It had felt weird, but also natural in a strange way. As if I had this skill all along and the sands had just activated it. Something similar seemed to be happening to Kai. He couldn't hover above the ground, but he _had_ gained the strange ability to see a few minutes into the future. I liked my superpower better though…

I turned off the water and dried myself with a towel. I put on my clothes again: a navy-blue tank top, simple denim jeans and a pair of sneakers, nothing fancy.

I walked back to the bedroom and looked out the window. From our penthouse, we had an amazing view on the city… or what was left of it. I could see the layout changing before my eyes, every alteration just a tad bigger than the previous one. Also, strange beams of light rose between the buildings: I had no idea what they were, but no doubt it was Zervan's handiwork.

I smiled when a flock of seagulls flew by our window: I loved everything with wings and it was my dream to become a veterinarian one day. Or a ninja. Either would do.

I waited for the birds to pass, but blinked in confusion when they stopped and looked closely at me through the glass. What the…?

The flock squawked almost excitedly and when they suddenly took off at breakneck speed, everything suddenly clicked into place.

"Kai! Wake up!" I frantically started shaking my little brother.

"I don't wanna go to school…"

"Come one, twerp! We have to go!" I urged, dragging the ten-year old out of bed.

"Where's the fire?" he mumbled sleepily, rubbing his eyes.

"Heading right this way," I said, grabbing a bottle of water from the mini-fridge. "The Crow Master is using the local avian population as his personal spies to track us down!"

"He can do that?" Kai asked when I opened the door and stepped into the hall.

"Either he can, or seagulls just dig me for some reason. Now come on! Move! We have to get out of here before he…"

We both froze when we heard a voice echoing through the staircase.

"I could have easily shattered the window and saved us this climb," a thick, watery voice spoke with mild disgruntlement.

"The sound could've startled them," a female voice disagreed. "We don't want to scare them off again."

Oh shit… oh shit, oh shit, oh shit!!!

I frantically pushed the button of the elevator, but nothing happened. The lights were flickering, a sign that power was beginning to fail. But with the city layout being scrambled as it was, it was a miracle we had any power at all.

I suppressed a startled yelp and quickly shoved Kai back inside, closing the door behind us, even though we knew the simple lock was no match for the Crow Master's sword.

"What are we gonna do?! What are we gonna do?!" Kai panicked, his face paling when we saw a shadow underneath the door.

"Hide!" I whispered, pointing at the bed. We crawled underneath and pulled the covers down so the sides were covered. Barely a second later, the door was kicked down and I could hear a rustling sound coming closer and closer, followed by light, female footsteps.

"Are you sure they were here?" she asked and I had to resist the urge to panic when I saw a dark silhouette through the covers, hovering a few centimeters above the floor.

"Yes, I am. The sheets of this bed are still warm, they could not have gone far."

I smelled a strange, flowery scent, but realized it was my own hair. The shampoo had been a bit heavy on the perfume and I could see Kai wrinkling his nose. My eyes widened when he closed his eyes shut and opened his mouth, but I quickly clamped a hand over his face before disaster struck. He relaxed again and relieved that it had been a false alarm, I let go… and of course it was _that_ particular moment, that he chose to sneeze.

"Did you hear that?!" The Harem Girl whispered and I died when I heard her walking towards the bed.

"We are not alone," the Crow Master acknowledged and I could see his silhouette bending over, a purple cloth wrapped hand lifting the cover…

"RUUUUUUUUUN!!!!" I screamed, standing up and with strength I never knew I had, toppled over the bed and trapped the sand creatures in a chaos of blankets and sheets.

Not looking back, we bolted out the room and down the stairs, making up our escape plan as we went.

"Children, wait! We only wish to speak with you!" the Crow Master called. How had he caught up with us so fast?!

"I bet you do!" I yelled, opening the water bottle and tossing it over my shoulder like a hand grenade. A pained shriek told me I had struck my target, but I knew the small splash of water would only slow him down.

I realized that simply continuing to run down the stairs and make a beeline for the exit wasn't an option: we had a small chance of outrunning the Harem Girl, but the lightning fast avian demon would catch us before we were even halfway there. Think, Robin! Think!

Not knowing what else to do, I grabbed Kai and left the staircase, entering the 16th floor. Maybe we could lose them by randomly zigzagging our way down, though I didn't believe they would fall for it. We raced down the hall to another staircase ahead, but plowed right into the female sand creature instead, whom I now noticed was wearing normal clothes. Could those things possibly start to act any weirder?! Not interested in the ins and outs of sand creature fashion, I wanted to turn around and bolt the other way, but she quickly grabbed my shoulders, her glowing eyes meeting my own.

"Robin, please! Listen to me!"

I froze when I heard the creature call my name.

"How… How do you…" I stammered, but a startled yelp from Kai caught my attention. The Crow Master had appeared on the other end of the hallway and was flying right at us, Kai and me hopelessly trapped in between

I was frozen like a deer in the headlights, my life flashing before my eyes. I prepared to scream my head off and brace for impact, when the Harem Girl suddenly shrieked in pain and released her grip. An arrow was embedded in her back, sand leaking from the wound.

"Quick! This way!" A woman called behind her from the stairway, holding a wooden bow. She was sporting a bronze armor, her dark hair hanging down her back in a braid. Her features were hardened, her once warm brown eyes now cold as ice, as if they had been witness to unspeakable terror.

She looked like the Indian princess from the Sands of Time, but her characteristic aura of innocence had vanished completely. Could she really be who I thought she was?

"Farah? Is that you?" I gawked, and the woman looked at me in shock when I spoke her name. She recovered quickly, shooting another arrow at the Harem Girl, who seemed equally surprised to see the warrior princess.

"Hurry!" she shouted, eyeing the Crow Master, who was charging at her with break-neck speed, his blade poised to strike. My attack with the water bottle had barely upset him, but the moment that first arrow had struck the Harem Girl, something had snapped. The avian demon had completely forgotten about us, its focus now on Farah, who seemed more than willing to kick his butt. She urged us down the stairs and turned around to unleash a wave of arrows at the furious sand creature. It took me a while to realize that the Crow Master wasn't trying to attack Farah, but was trying to protect the Harem Girl, whose injuries seemed to have healed already. These were no ordinary sand creatures… they seemed almost… familiar somehow. I couldn't quite put my finger on it.

"Come on sis, we have to run!" Kai pulled at my hand, and I snapped out of it. We raced down the stairs, the Indian princess following close behind.

"Are you two native to this strange world?" she asked us, constantly looking over her shoulder.

"Yeah, I'm Robin and shorty over here is my brother Kai," I panted, running out of breath.

"I would tell you my name, but it seems like you already know me," she said, cocking an eyebrow.

"Long story," I said as we rushed through the lobby and onto the streets. My eye fell on an abandoned car and without thinking, I took the lead and got behind the wheel. I caught a break on this one: scratch marks on the seat showed that the owner had literally been dragged from his vehicle, and not been given the chance to take the keys with him.

"What are you doing?!" Farah exclaimed, backing away in horror. "You are going to let that metal demon devour you?!"

I smacked my forehead when I realized that she had never seen a car before in her life, let alone hijacked one. Smooth, Robin… real smooth.

"Just trust me on this one!" I shouted while Kai climbed onto the passenger seat. Seeing the boy enter as well, seemed to convince her that the vehicle was not going to eat her alive. Still a bit hesitant, she got in the back, stroking the leather interior and curiously inspecting the seatbelts.

"Hang on!" I yelled, powering the engine and flooring the gas pedal just as the sand creatures exited the hotel.

"By the gods!" the Indian princess yelped, clutching onto her seat.

"Are they following us?" I asked her after she recovered from the shock, but she shook her head after looking through the back window.

"Well, I'm not taking any chances," I said grimly and continued to drive, secretly feeling a bit smug for actually getting the hang of it. I would have to pull over sometime, but I was going to make sure we would be a good distance away from that horror hotel first.

"Thanks for the rescue, but what were you doing up there?"

"I am looking for our treacherous Vizier," she growled, balling her fist. "He killed my father, took our army and invaded the city of Babylon. I was taken as a prisoner, but managed to escape when a strange vortex opened in the sky and the Sands of Time were unleashed. I blacked out and suddenly found myself stranded in this strange world. This building was the tallest in the area, thus I believed it had to be where the ruler of this place resided. Unfortunately, it was abandoned and there was nothing left for me to do than spend the night there and regain my energy."

She sighed deeply and then looked at us, her voice a bit more friendly this time.

"But what about you? How did you know my name? And why do your eyes glow? Are you creatures of the sands? Deserters perhaps? I have never seen children of their kind, and you do not seem hostile."

"Frankly, I don't know _what_ we are anymore. We used to be as normal as the next person, but then the sands exploded from my TV, and well… stuff happened. Sorta…"

The Indian princess cocked an eyebrow, a confused expression on her face.

"What is this… 'TV'… you're speaking off?"

I sighed and rubbed my temples, taking a deep breath. This… was going to take a while.


	6. City of lights

**A/N:** This one look me a bit longer than usual, due to exams and stuff like that. Sigh… don't they realize I have more important stuff to do? Like finishing the 100 Themes Challenge I signed up for? Look at my DeviantArt page (there's a link in my profile) for details: it's basically a list of 100 themes that you need to draw, and I'm going to use the Gamer Within series as my main subject. Sweet Batman… What am I getting myself into?!

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**Chapter 6: City of lights**

Farah's eyes widened when I told her that in our world, she was merely a videogame character. Then her jaw dropped when I explained to her just what a videogame was. When I told her about the Sands of Time and a certain Persian prince… well, she did not take it quite so well as I had hoped.

"Farah, put that thing away! I can't drive like this!" I protested, trying to keep my head cool and my eyes on the road.

"You claim to have evidence," she said in an eerily calm tone. "I demand you show it to me at once!"

"It's called 'the Internet' and I need to find a computer first! Now get that arrow out of my face!"

I knew she wouldn't shoot me, she was way too curious to find out about her forgotten love. Yeah… in hindsight, perhaps entering fangirl-mode and gushing about 'the bath scene', and other…finer details… of their relationship, was not one of my brighter ideas. I could only hope that she wouldn't somehow get her hands on the Prince/Farah fanfic I was writing… The _M rated_ Prince/Farah fanfic. Ahem…

"Farah, it's true!" Kai piped up, nervously eying her bow. "You see, when Prince returned the sands to the Hourglass, which were really the dead body of the Empress of Time, the Dagger-"

"Enough!" She hissed, glaring at both of us. "I will hear no more about this ridiculous tale! Not without proof!"

I still didn't know how to use the breaks, so I let go of the gas pedal and let the car roll to a standstill. I stepped out and inspected our surroundings: we seemed to have stranded in a residential area, but the houses looked odd to me. I lived in a typical boring suburban neighbourhood with large gardens and picket white fences. But these homes were smaller and looked aged, as is they were over a hundred years old. Even stranger was the fact that they were build next to a large moat.

"Sis… where are we?" Kai asked, picking up an old newspaper. I tried to read the headline, but blinked when I realized it was written in a language I could not read. It looked German… or Dutch maybe.

"I don't know, but I don't like this… I don't like this at all…" I mumbled, scratching my head. I was sure there had to be a techstore around here somewhere! Had the layout shifted again? What was this place?

I felt something sharp pricking in my back and sweatdropped when I realized that Farah was running out of patience.

"For crying out loud, woman!" I snapped, turning around and throwing my hands up in frustration. "How many times do we have to tell you, we're not-"

"Quiet," she cut me off, poking my arm as if making sure I was real. "You look human, sound human and even act human, but your eyes reveal the presence of the sands in your bodies. Then you tell me an unbelievable tale of magic, death and betrayal, mentioning personal secrets I have never revealed to another soul! And now you claim that you are not a wizard and have no dark intentions? Do you think me a child, that I would believe such nonsense?"

I grinned widely like the goofy fangirl I was when she spoke that last sentence. Unfortunately, Farah was not amused and raised her bow, aiming an arrow right between my eyes.

"Hey now, let's not do anything hasty!" I yelped, backing away. "I'm not messing with you! Honest! Kai, please explain to Psycho Princess here that we're not…"

I trailed off when I realized my little brother was no longer standing next to me. I was about to smack my own forehead when I saw him running out of one of the buildings, carrying what looked like a laptop.

"Robin, look what I found!" He announced proudly, completely oblivious to the fact that I was about to be turned into shish-kebab.

"What do you have there?" Farah arched an eyebrow when he opened the lid and turned on the computer.

"Wireless Internet," he grinned as he typed away at the keys. "I should still be in range… ah, there we go!"

He started Internet Explorer, the Google homepage loading automatically, but it was set in a language other than English. A horrible theory crept up in my mind, but I quickly dismissed it. No… that wasn't possible… was it? No, of course not. It had probably been brought along by some tourist, just like the newspaper. There was no way…

Kai tried to adjust the settings and find a Prince of Persia website that was still online. Farah seemed fascinated by the small machine, running her fingers across the screen. I opened my mouth to tell her she could damage it, but decided not to: never boss around a woman with a bow.

"Hey, I found one that's still working!"

I sat down behind him and looked over his shoulder. Kai had stumbled on a small fansite that had not been overrun with other surfers yet. He frantically tapped away at the touchpad and navigated to a section dedicated to the Sands of Time. The Indian Princess turned white as a sheet when screenshots from the game passed by as my brother slowly scrolled down to the bottom of the page. I could not even begin to imagine what had to be going through her mind when she looked at a close-up of the Dagger of Time, with her clinging desperately to the handle while Prince's blood ran down the blade. She hesitantly reached for his face on the screen, her bottom lip trembling. Did she remember?

"No… this can't be…" she whispered hoarsely, slowly getting back to her feet. "This is a trick… it has to be!"

"It's not," I shook my head, but she wasn't listening to a word I said.

"You stay away from me!" she suddenly yelled, running from us as if we had the bubonic plague.

"Farah! Wait!!!" I shouted, but was met with an arrow that barely grazed my leg. I looked down at the tear in my pants, but when I looked up again, the Indian Princess had disappeared… along with the strange town. Instead, we were now standing in the middle of a large plaza, surrounded by small stands that sold all kinds of trinkets. A oddly shaped shadow loomed over me, and I turned around, curious what kind of structure could cast such a shade. I could feel all blood draining from my face when I looked behind me… and was met with a triangular construction I had only seen in history books and cheesy postcards.

"Kai…" I whispered, my hands covering my mouth in horror. "Please… please tell me I'm hallucinating and that's not the Eiffel Tower we're looking at!"

"Wow, cool!" he gawked, gazing up at the famous monument. "It looks just like it, doesn't it? I wonder how they managed to copy all those details…"

"I don't think it's a replica," I said hoarsely, beginning to feel awfully light-headed.

"But then… that means…" he stammered, his eyes widening in terror.

"It's not just our city that's been screwed up by the sands… _it's the entire fucking planet!_"

Kai's jaw dropped at my language, but I couldn't care less. Oh shit… oh shit, oh shit, oh shit! If the sands had gone global, then so had the sand creatures! And what about the Prince and Farah? How in the world, pun fully intended, were we going to find them now?!

My racing thoughts were interrupted by a series of panicked cries. The floor trembled beneath our feet and when we looked up, it turned out that 'the city of lights' wasn't quite as abandoned as we thought.

I grabbed Kai and braced myself as we were engulfed in a seemingly endless stream of fleeing people. They were running as if their lives depended on it, not caring what or who they knocked over in the process. I elbowed my way out of the hysterical crowd and got behind one of the Tower's legs, hoping it would keep us from being trampled.

What was happening here? Why weren't these people hiding, rather than blindly running out in the open where any random sand creature could spot them a mile away? I reached for a young woman and pulled her out of the masses, hoping she could tell us just what the flying monkey crap had scared them this badly.

"Do you speak English?" I shook her shoulders, but she just looked at me with wide, frightened eyes.

"Le Prince de l'Ombre! Le Prince de l'Ombre!" she panicked, pulling away from my grasp and disappearing into the crowd.

Okay, the 'Prince' part was obvious, but what did 'ombre' mean? Wasn't that French for…

"**Run, little civilians! Run!"** a voice cackled madly, and I no longer needed a translator to know what the woman had been trying to warn me about.

I resisted the temptation to make a break for it and pressed my back against the Tower's leg, hoping I wouldn't draw the Dark Prince's attention. Water… I had to find water!

"Hey sis, check it out!" Kai pulled at my pants and I fell over animestyle when I saw him sitting on the stone tiles, carelessly typing away at the laptop as if nothing was going on.

"Kai, you moron! This isn't the time to check your e-mail! If that creep finds us, we're done for!"

"I'm not!" he protested insulted and showed me the screen. "Look! It's an article about the Dark Prince!"

I took the computer and read the page, my jaw slowly dropping as the contents of the website began to sink in.

"It says here that Prince's dark side is just a voice in his mind… that he can make Prince's appearance change, but not his behavior," I stated, realizing that we were in deep, deep trouble.

"Yeah, click on that link there! It's a movie clip from the game!"

I did as he said and gazed as the fragment began to play. It showed a distraught Farah staring in terror at the Dark Prince. But instead of mocking the Indian Princess and trying to cut her head off, he told her that even though he looked like a monster on the outside, his mind was still his own. This was most certainly not the same daggertail wielding menace we had encountered earlier.

"In the game, the Prince is still in control of his body, but in our world, his mind is being taken over as well," I concluded, feeling a headache of epic proportions coming on. "That explains why he couldn't remember our battle: we were fighting the Dark Prince, not the Prince of Persia…"

"**You rang?"** a voice laced with malice called from above. We looked up just in time to see a dark figure perched on one of the Eiffel Tower's metal beams, before it flashed us a cruel smile…

And lashed out with deadly precision.


	7. Heritage

**A/N:** I always try to update at least once a week, but I've been struggling with college and with the plot. I needed some time to think about the direction I want this story to take, but I now have a fairly decent outline… which will probably change in five days or so XD

Enjoy!

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**Chapter 7: Heritage**

My pupils turned to pinpricks when my eyes met those of the Dark Prince. With a wicked grin, he raised his arm and lashed out with the razor-sharp Daggertail. It was coming straight at me, but I was frozen on the spot, my legs feeling like they were made out of cement. I just stood there like a deer caught in the headlights, staring paralyzed at the deadly weapon that whizzed in my direction… and stopped mere millimeters before striking my face.

"What… what the hell…?" I stammered in a daze, blinking when I saw that the world had stopped moving, suspended in time and space.

"Sis…"

I turned around when I heard my brother's strained whisper. His eyes were glowing bright, his hair fluttering in a wind I could not feel. I noticed that time had not been frozen, but slowed down. The crowd was still running and the Daggertail was still zooming right at me. It was just happening very, very slowly. I thought back to Warrior Within and suddenly, it dawned on me what was happening.

"Kai… are you using Eye of the Storm!?"

He nodded, his face pale and covered with sweat.

"I don't know how I did it… I saw him attacking you and something just… happened. But I'm losing my grip! I don't know if I can hold on for much longer!"

"Try!" I urged him, diving into the crowd and looking into the purses and backpacks of the fleeing French. One of them had to carry water!

"Robin!" a panicked whimper came from underneath the Tower. "He's fighting me! Dark Prince is trying to break free!"

"Kai, I don't know how you're doing it, but keep that creep where he is!"

"He's too strong! I can't hold him!"

"Yes, you can!" I ordered, swiping a juice box from a woman's purse and turning on the ball of my foot. Just hold on for a little longer… just a little bit longer!

"Sis!!!"

"I'm coming!" I yelled, wrestling my way back out of the frozen crowd and racing the stairs up the Eiffel tower. I got off halfway between the ground and the first floor, climbing over the safety rails and putting my feet on the metal beam that the Dark Prince was still perched on. Almost there…!

I carefully balanced on the beam, slowly closing in on the dark figure. I grabbed the juice box, aiming it at the corrupted royal and preparing to squeeze. But as I was about to squirt him with orange juice, the crowd underneath me started screaming again, and the demon snapped his head in my direction, his glowing eyes boring into mine.

"**Close…"** he smirked, **"but not close enough!"**

With lightning speed, he lashed out with the Daggertail, knocking the juice box out of my hand. I glanced own at the ground where Kai stared up at me with wide, fear filled eyes.

"I'm sorry! I think my time powers wore off!"

"Can you do it again?" I yelped nervously as the Dark Prince began to advance on me with a chilling grin on his face.

"I don't know how I did it the first time!" he panicked, waving wildly with his arms. "Abracadabra! Hocus Pocus! Expecto Patronum!"

"Just get out of here and find water!" I yelled, dodging a vicious swipe from the corrupted royal.

"**Strange… your grandmother was still human when she gave birth to your mother. I'm curious as to how that little twerp inherited her time powers. Oh well, they do say time is an ocean in a storm, blah, blah, blah…"**

"What are you talking about?" I snapped, tired of his weird mind games.

"**Ooh, goody, you really do have no idea who you are, don't you?"** he snickered. **"By the gods, you're even more clueless than your mother!"**

"What about her?! Speak up!"

"**Humor me, girl; did your parents never tell you how they first met?"**

My anger was replaced with confusion at that strange question.

"Eh… it was in a cafe, I think, but why do you want to know?" I scratched my head at the demon's inquiry. I had asked mom how she and dad got to know each other, but she would just smile and say that I wouldn't believe her. Then she told me a cheesy story about a coffee shop and said that, if anyone asked, I just had to stick to that one. Dad wouldn't spill the beans either, believing that it would be better if Kai and I never knew about our 'heritage' so we could 'grow up human' and lead a normal life… whatever _that_ meant.

"Hey! I asked you a question!" I snapped when the demon laughed at my confused expression.

"**Well, if your parents never told you about their history, then they obviously wanted to keep it a secret from you brats,"** he rolled his eyes dramatically, placing the back of his hand against his forehead. "**Who am I to go against their whishes?"**

"You're a _dead man_ if you don't tell me where they are!" I hissed, baring my teeth. "It was you who took them from our house, wasn't it? What have you done to them?!"

"**I have no idea what you're talking about, but I'm getting tired of this small talk. Fight me, girl! You still owe me that warm-up!"**

"Just use tiger balm like a normal person!" I protested, but he already lashed out at me and I nearly lost my balance.

I knew the Dark Prince wasn't lying about my parents: if he had done something to them, he wouldn't pass on a chance to brag about it. But he did seem to know them somehow… or maybe the Prince had?

I looked at the demon, wondering if maybe spitting on him could make him change back. I decided against it when I saw traces of blood on his hand: if that couldn't make him transform, then the same probably went for other bodily fluids as well.

Dark Prince grinned at me and prepared to attack, but we were suddenly interrupted by a startled yelp and a gruff voice that did not sound human.

"Get back here, you pest! You shall bow down to Zervan!"

My eyes widened when I looked in the direction of the noise and saw Kai running back to the Eiffel Tower with a shitload of guards on his tail.

"You're gonna get it now!" he shouted at the sand creatures, smirking cockily. "My sister knows karate!"

My jaw dropped and I fell over animestyle when I heard him boldly threaten the armed guards… all twelve of them.

"Robin! What are you waiting for?!" he yelled up at me. "Kick their asses!"

I wanted to protest, but a mocking snicker from the Dark Prince caught my attention.

"**Ooh, I can't wait to see the boy's face when those monsters rip you to shreds. It should be quite amusing."**

"Not if they kill you first," I stated dryly when one of the archers fired an arrow that went straight through his flaming hair.

"**How bothersome,"** he sighed and leaped off the beam, his eyes gleaming with anticipation of battle. I quickly raced down the stairs and bolted over the plaza, grabbing Kai just before a second wave of arrows threatened to turn him into Swiss cheese.

"We need to get out of here!" I hissed, while Dark Prince whipped his Daggertail at the offending archer, then turned around and beheaded two more soldiers.

"**Three down,"** he grinned, **"nine to… uh oh…"**

"Uh oh?" I repeated, then noticed what had alarmed him. A fresh wave of sand creatures, at least fifteen of them, appeared on the scene. Oh, I so did _not_ need this right now…

"**Dammit!"** he cursed, growling at the rapidly approaching threat. **"There must be a Sand Portal nearby!"**

"There must be a what now?" I yelled above the thundering footsteps.

"**Sand Portal! The Vizier has set them up across the city; they allow his army to quickly transport from location to location and can be used to call for reinforcements."**

"How do we shut it down?!"

"**We don't! But only one sand creature per unit can operate it! Look for the red guard! He is the one we must take down first!"**

"I have a better idea," I whispered slyly, making him lean in closer to listen. "RUN FOR IT YOU IDIOT!!!!!"

He started when I screamed in his ear, then scowled at me as if I had suggested we'd take our pants off and moon them.

"**I fear it is too late for that, girl,"** he scoffed, pointing at something behind me.

I looked around and saw that guards were approaching from all directions. We were completely surrounded with no possible way of escape. I quickly ushered Kai to seek cover under a gift stand and took on a defensive stance. Though we had never officially agreed on it, Dark Prince and I were now fighting along side each other. It is as they say: the enemy of my enemy is my friend, especially when facing a hoard of plus twenty rabid sand creatures with swords nearly the size of my arm.

"FOR ZURVAN!" They cried, raising their weapons.

"**FOR BABYLON!"** Dark Prince roared, readying his Daggertail.

"FOR PONY!" I punched in the air, then sweatdropped when everyone went silent, crickets almost chirping in the background.

"What? They don't have webcomics in ancient Persia?"

My question was answered with an arrow whizzing right past my face. I startled and fell flat on my butt, the highly amused archer moving in for the kill. I turned my head to the left, my eye catching the gleam of a sword dropped by the guard Dark Prince had taken care off earlier. A strange feeling welled up in the pit of my stomach… as if the blade was calling for me. I grabbed the hilt of the weapon, a surge of excitement going through my mind. I had never held a sword before, but it felt right somehow… as if I had been naked all this time without one.

Without thinking, I jumped to my feet and cut off the archers head in one graceful swoop. Instinct took over and without even realizing it, I was once again hovering above the stone tiles of the plaza, glaring at the surprised guards.

"Rise up, soldiers," I heard myself rasp, narrowing my glowing eyes. "I'm not finished yet!"

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**A/N:** Hehe, Robin really is her father's daughter, isn't she? She has her mother's character though! XD 

In case you were wondering, by the way: the webcomic I referred to is called 'looking for group'. Go Google it, it's very funny!

In other news, since A/N's at the bottom of the page tend to be read more often: I've started on the first Gamer Within fanart piece for the '100 themes challenge' on DeviantArt. Click on the homepage link in my profile for a link to my DA page. You can see my progress in the journal. 100 drawings… what was I thinking?!


	8. A past best forgotten

**A/N: **Not much to say, except that updates will be slower for a while. I'll try to keep posting at least once a week, but I might not always pull it off. Busy, busy, busy…

Thanks for all the reviews and the private notes, glad to see you're still with me XD

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**Chapter 8: A past best forgotten**

"What are you waiting for! KILL HER!!!" the red guard yelled to his squadron, a split second before I beheaded him.

"Unfortunate that you have fallen so easily," I smirked, then whirled around and struck down two more soldiers with deadly precision. I couldn't help it: it was as if someone else had taken control of my body. Gracefully, I darted over the plaza, killing sand creatures left and right where they stood. No longer was I Robin, the klutzy teenager on who her karate teacher had pretty much given up hope: I was a warrior machine, my body, mind and sword moving as one with lethal efficiency. Unstoppable… untouchable… unmatched.

"OWW!!!"

Well… _almost_ unmatched.

I snapped out of my high and yelped when an arrow scraped my arm, leaving a nasty cut. The jolt of pain made me snap back to my senses and I blinked when my eye fell on the carnage I had left behind. I don't know how long my rush had lasted, but it had been enough to take out over ten sand creatures. Whoa!

**"Girl, what are you doing?!"** Dark Prince yelled while dodging a vicious swipe from one of the remaining grunts. **"It's not over yet!"**

"I… I think I forgot how to fight!" I panicked, the sword suddenly feeling very heavy in my inexperienced hands. Okay, I still had _some_ basic martial arts skills, but those were not going to do me any good against Zervan's undead minions. I could take down a weak one with a bit of luck… maybe even two if I had the element of surprise, but that was pushing it. A quick look around told me that there were only four soldiers left standing and I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Come on, you wuss!" I turned to Dark Prince and rolled my eyes. "There's only four of them, I'm sure you can handle those on your…"

I trailed off when I saw the corrupted royal was sweating profoundly and swaying on his feet. Instead of a bright yellow, the glow of his tattoos was now only a dim red. What was happening to him!?

"Hahaha, not feeling too well, are you Prince?" one of the guards laughed and kicked him square in the chest. The demon was send flying backwards and crashed into the souvenir stand Kai was hiding under.

"Kai!" I yelled, sprinting past the soldiers and pushing Dark Prince aside, freeing the ten-year old from the rubble.

**"Oh, don't worry about me, I'm just _fine_,"** the corrupted royal muttered, then passed out and slowly turned back into the Prince of Persia.

"Wha… what happened?" He mumbled weakly.

"You tell me," I said, wondering what had caused him to change back. He slowly got back to his feet, frowning when he noticed his hand was covered in a rather smelly liquid, a glass shard embedded in his palm. Near his feet lay the broken remains of a cheap bottle of perfume in the shape of the Eiffel Tower.

"Incoming!" Kai yelled when the sand creatures charged at us, their blades raised in the air. Prince went silent and furrowed his brow, a sign that his dark side was filling him in on what had happened.

"That…'warrior state'… you were in," he turned to me. "Can you do it again?"

"Yes, I could kill them all right now if I wanted to, but I just prefer to get slaughtered instead… NO I CANNOT FIGHT THOSE FREAKING THINGS!!!" I shrieked, throwing my hands up in exasperation.

Prince muttered something about 'even worse than her mother' and using the Dagger of Time, swiftly dispatched of the grunts. My jaw dropped at the ease if his victory and I gawked at him with wide eyes.

"And _why_ did I have to go into crazy battle mode again?"

"Magic is not a natural part of your world. The mystic forces from my dimension are slowly seeping into this one, but the levels are not nearly as high yet. It is difficult to find sands… my alter ego killed over ten sand creatures and their sand combined was barely enough to fill one tank. Until the sands become more common, I'd rather use the Dagger sparingly."

"What happened to Dark Prince?" I asked, reading the label of the broken perfume bottle. "This cheap stuff is nearly 100 percent alcohol! Hardly even a trace of water! If the natural damp in the air isn't even enough to change you back, then how could _this_-"

"It did not… He ran out of energy," Prince explained, looking grim. "As humans need water to live, my demonic half needs the power of the sands to sustain his form. But his endurance is increasing and he can spend more and more time without recharging before he's forced to let go of my body. I must find the Vizier and undo whatever horror he has bestowed on this world, or the condition may become… permanent."

I looked at the glowing symbols that surrounded the wound on his arm. They were spreading rapidly, now also covering part of his chest and back.

"My dark side wishes to inform you that, now the enemy is disposed off, your truce has been terminated."

"Terminated? After I saved his sorry ass?! That son of a-!"

"And that cursing is not very ladylike."

"Oh, that's it… let me at him!" I exclaimed, grabbing prince by his hair. "I'll show you ladylike, you sorry-!"

"You're only amusing him," the royal protested and freed himself from my grip.

"I must go find Zervan, you two seek shelter and-"

"Hell no," cut him off, grabbing my sword.

"What are you-?"

"Listen Prince, I think we'll both know what's gonna happen if we split up. You go this way, we go that way, Dark Prince takes over, turns around, and murders us in our sleep… if he's not too busy dissecting the population of whatever country we end up in next. Besides that, since you're the main character of the game, you're probably the only one who even stands a remote chance against the Vizier. That means that if you try to drink bleach or stick your head in a dishwasher, planet Earth is pretty much screwed. You seem to know about the game, but you don't know about my time. This world is dangerous if you don't even know how to ring a doorbell, and I won't have you electrocute yourself before fighting the Vizier."

"You make a good point, and it would perhaps be wise if you were to travel with me as a guide in this strange place. But I must stress the risk involved: my dark side is tired for now, but if he takes over again, I cannot guarantee your safety. He will try to kill you and I will not be able to stop him."

"Then we'll just have to make sure you stay in control," I nodded, going through a garbage bin and fishing out a discarded bottle of water that was still half-full.

"See this, Dark Prince?" I said, holding the dirty bottle before the royal's eyes. "It's infested with algae, probably ridden with germs, and has your name on it if you try anything funny."

"Disgusting, but effective," Prince wrinkled his nose. Kai did the same and I had to admit that I wasn't really comfortable either with holding the murky liquid. On second thought, I think I actually preferred fighting the corrupted royal instead…

I leaned against one of the Tower's legs, suddenly feeling very woozy. The fight had taken a lot out of me and I realized that I had not eaten anything since yesterday morning.

"Guys, let's take a lunch break, before my stomach starts to digest itself," I ordered.

"But the Vizier-!" Prince protested, but I shot him a warning glare.

"Prince, you've already seen what I can do when I'm mad. Do you _really_ want to see what I can do when I'm hungry?"

"Well… I suppose it would not hurt if we rested for a few minutes…"

"I thought so."

About fifteen minutes later, I had found a McDonalds in the deserted streets of Paris. My French was pathetic to say at least, and I knew that here at least I would find some food I would recognize. There was one problem though…

"Hey Prince, do you know how to grill a burger?"

I turned to the Royal, who was staring quizzically at a milkshake dispenser. He hesitantly pushed a few buttons, jumped back when it started beeping and whacked it with his sword, causing the syrup-filled tanks to blow up in his face.

"Prince, don't touch anything!"

"It _attacked_ me!"

"Go attack a shower, before you're permanently stuck to the floor," I sweatdropped, trying to ignore the sickly sweet stench. The Vizier could probably smell us coming miles away now…

"What is this 'shower' you speak off?"

I put my head in my hands, groaning inwardly.

"Kai, go find something to clean him off while I try to cook us something slightly edible."

"Come on Prince," the ten-year old nudged him to the back of the restaurant. "I think I saw a fire hose back there."

"What is a-"

"You'll see. Just wait here for a moment…"

I shook my head, ignoring the sound of rushing water, followed by a rather girlish scream. I tried to get the grill working, but after about twenty failed attempts, decided to settle for a couple of pre-packed muffins, milk and little bags of sliced fruit instead. Not exactly a balanced meal, but it would have to do for now, considering that my cooking skills were probably even more dangerous that Zervan's fiercest minions.

I choked back a laugh when I exited the kitchen and saw them sitting at a table, Prince looking like a drowned cat with a glare to match. It was summer though, so he would dry up soon enough.

We quietly ate our improvised dinner and I slowly began to remember our fight, including the Dark Prince's words.

"Prince," I started, swallowing a chewed piece of apple. "How do you know my parents?"

The royal's eyes widened and he nearly choked on his muffin, making Kai burst out in laughter and squirt milk through his nose.

Lovely…

"I fear I must agree with my dark side on this one," he shook his head. "It is not up to me to tell you this tale."

"Ah, come on! Give me a break here!" I exclaimed, throwing my hands up. "You act like this is some kind of horrible secret or something! I'm 16 and I've watched plenty of TV. Really, I've seen plenty of weird shit in my life and whatever it is you know, I'm pretty sure I can handle it!"

Prince stayed quiet for a moment, avoiding my eyes.

"Robin," he spoke, a serious look on his face, "the tale of my encounter with your parents is… unique. If they want you to know the truth, it is their right to tell you. Not mine."

"But… what if we don't see them again?" Kai asked softly, his bottom lip trembling slightly. "The sands… it is kinda our fault they were set free. We played a videogame and suddenly they exploded from our TV! When we went downstairs, there were sand creatures in our living room and we couldn't find mom and dad anywhere. We had to make a run for it…"

"There weren't any bodies lying around though, so we think Zervan took them prisoner and left those monsters behind to finish us off," I added grimly.

"It is possible…" Prince nodded slowly. "The Vizier is building an army and has ordered his men to capture as many civilians alive as they can to infect with the Sands."

"So that's what they meant by 'turning'," I said, remembering the poor waiter that was dragged away by Zervan's minions. "But then we have to find them fast before the Vizier turns them into brainless zombies!"

"Still, I find it odd… especially your father is not one to be taken captive easily…" he mused, then suddenly his eyes widened and his head snapped up as if he had been struck by lightning. "Those creatures in your house! What did they look like?!"

"Well, one of them-"

I was interrupted by a shrill, feminine shriek, followed by the sound of an arrow whizzing through the air.

"Give it up Princess," a gruff voice laughed. "You are outnumbered and outmatched. Submit to Zervan now, and perhaps your death shall be a swift one."

"Never, you disgusting beast! I will send you back to the hole you crawled-" a female voice yelled bravely, but she was cut off and a scream echoed through the empty streets.

All blood drained from the royal's face, his pupils shrinking to the size of pinpricks. Recognition flashed in his eyes and with a cry, he jolted up and ran through the doorway as if the Dahaka himself was chasing after him again.

"FARAH!!!"


	9. I’m not a snack!

**Chapter 9: ****I'm not a snack!**

"FARAH!!! I'M COMING!!!!" Prince shouted as he bolted through the door and onto the streets.

"Here we go again," I sighed, running after the royal.

The Indian princess was surrounded by three guards, looking at us with panic in her eyes. I knew why: though quite effective at long range, her bow was not made for melee combat. It would take her at least two full seconds to ready a single arrow, plenty of time for the sand creatures to knock the weapon out of her hands.

"Leave her alone!" Prince yelled, charging at the one of the guards who simply knocked him aside like a rag doll. I took one quick look at the offending sand creature and instantly felt all blood drain from my face.

"Prince, that's not the same type of grunt we were fighting before! This one must come from a higher level in the game! Look out!"

The guard turned to me and I took a moment to fully take in his appearance: the previous minions were either archers with a bird mask, or horned musclemen who's heads somewhat looked like a bull's. The other two fell into the latter category, but this goon was taller and much more fiercer looking, dressed in an elaborate kind of armor that left parts of his chest bare. Though there was only one of him, I instantly knew these guy would not be dealt with that easy. It was the number one law in the world of videogames: the less frequently an enemy appears, the harder he will be to defeat.

The thrall looked at me with a grin on his face that was all but friendly. He was wielding a spiked mace that was about as long as my leg, swinging it above his head before he charged at me with breakneck speed.

"Robin! I'll deal with these two, you handle their leader!" Prince shouted and my eyes bulged out of my head at his suggestion.

"Hell no!" I protested, ducking just in time to dodge a vicious blow. Axes and maces were supposed to be slower than daggers and swords, but this guy did not seem to be too troubled by this.

"Give it up, human vermin," he rasped. "You cannot beat me."

"If it's all the same to you, I think I prefer the term 'magically challenged'… EEEEEK!!!"

I yelped when his mace whizzed by my face, leaving a scratch on my cheek. It wasn't deep enough to leave a scar, but it was enough to paralyze me with fear. I not able to move a single muscle when he raised his mace again, but just as he was about to land the final blow, he was met with a metallic boot to the head and a sword plunged into his neck.

"Thanks Prince," I let out a sigh of relief, then saw that the royal was still fighting the horned guards on the other side of the street.

I turned back to my savior, who suddenly jumped up and with unearthly grace, landed on a rooftop. The figure, a woman, was wrapped in a black cloak that billowed in the wind, the hood shrouding her face in shadows. She looked down at me, our eyes meeting for a split second before she turned around and jumped off the building, disappearing from my view.

"What was that all about…" I blinked, scratching my head in confusion.

"**Beats me,"** I heard a familiar voice behind me answer and my blood instantly ran cold.

I turned around and back flipped away before the Dark Prince lashed out with his Daggertail.

"Prince…?" Farah gasped with wide eyes. "You're… you're one of them?"

"That's not the Prince!" I warned her. "It's a corruption, spawned when he was infected by the Sands of Time."

"**A corruption?!"** he scoffed. **"_That's_ what he calls me? The nerve of that weakling! I am faster than him! Stronger!"**

"Shorter," I snickered, suddenly noticing that, not including his flaming hair, he was about my height where Prince was roughly a head taller than me.

"**Don't mock me, wench!"** he snarled, readying his weapon. **"I shall show you who is the better half!"**

I yelped, barely dodging the razor-sharp Daggertail.

"Demon! I don't know who or what you are, but I order you to release the Prince of Persia at once!" Farah warned, narrowing her eyes and aiming an arrow at his head.

"**Foolish woman!"** he laughed, snapping his metal whip and striking her wooden bow, breaking it in two. **"Do you not understand? I **_**am**_** the Prince!"**

"No…" she argued, shaking her head. "I recall… he was kind and good, not like… not…"

"What do you remember?" I asked eagerly, completely ignoring the demon. Screw that creep, this was a Prince/Farah fangirl dream come true!

"I don't know… those pictures you showed me…" she looked at me, her face white as a sheet. "They triggered disturbing fever dreams, hazy visions of a magical bath, the hourglass, the Dagger covered in blood… but it was not mine!"

"**How touching,"** Dark Prince snorted, advancing on the Indian princess and crushing the remains of her bow under his foot. She yelped and rolled away before he could strike her with the blue blade. The demon had tried to go for a dramatic ending, killing Farah with the same Dagger that the Prince had used to rewind time and save her life. Fortunately, the warrior woman was no so easily defeated.

I frantically searched my pockets and realized too late that I had left my water bottle at the restaurant. Shit!

"Farah! Catch!" I yelled, grabbing a large sword from one of the dead guards and throwing it in her direction. She caught it, nearly buckling under its weight. With great effort, the Indian Princess managed to lift the blade, but failed to swing without losing her balance. Farah was a skilled archer, but she was not a swordswoman. She staggered and swayed while trying to get used to her new weapon, as if by breaking her bow, the Dark Prince had severed one of her limbs.

I closed my eyes shut and tried to think warrior-ish thoughts, but my own sword still felt heavy in my hands. I tried my hardest to slip back into battle mode, but to no avail. Unfortunately, it looked like it was not something I could control. I was on my own…

"Kai, we need to find a way to help Farah fight the…" I started, but then realized that my little brother was nowhere to be seen. He had followed me when I ran from the restaurant… hadn't he?

"KAI!!!" I yelled, turning around and heading back to the McDonalds. With my luck, he had probably been eaten by rabid sand creatures… Mom and dad were gonna kill me!

"**Where do you think you're going?"** the Dark Prince snapped, but I didn't pay him any attention and ran away, searching desperately for the ten-year old.

"**Come back, girl! I will not be ignored!"** the demon ordered and chased after me, a raging Farah hot on his tail. It was one thing to try to kill her, but even the Dark Prince should've known better than to touch the Indian Princess' bow.

I raced down the street and entered the McDonalds, stopping dead in my tracks when I found myself in a narrow hallway. Uh oh…

I was snapped out of my daze when Farah and the Dark Prince bolted through the doors and plowed into my back, sending us sprawling through the corridor and landing outside on a grassy surface in a messy heap of flailing limbs.

"Don't you dare try to grope me, you perverted corruption!" Farah hissed when Dark Prince tried to wriggle his way out.

"**Get off me then, woman!"** the demon snapped at the Indian princess, struggling to free his Daggertail.

"BOTH of you get off me!" I shrieked, pushing the bickering duo away. With a huff, I got up and inspected my surroundings. We seemed to be in some sort of outdoor arena, standing on what looked like a giant soccer field.

"Sis! Look out!!!"

I looked at my brother, who was shouting at me from the bleachers, frantically pointing at something behind me. I turned around and back flipped away just in time to dodge a giant sword slamming into the ground.

"Oh… my… god…" I uttered hoarsely with eyes big as dinner plates, my legs turning to jelly at what I saw.

"What… what is that thing?!" Farah gasped, pointing at the monstrosity that had tried to attack me.

The…_thing_, was about the size of a three story building, its sword well over four times my own length. Looking up, way up, I noticed that it seemed to be missing its lower jaw, the creature's tongue dangling freely from its mouth, the rest of its face covered by a white mask.

Blubbering wads of grayish fat wobbled every time it moved, the ground shaking underneath our feet every time that thing took a step. It looked down at us in curiosity, then let out an ear deafening roar.

Uh oh…

"HIT THE DIRT!" I shrieked when it picked up a bench from the bleachers and flung it in our direction, only missing us by a hair.

"**That beast was once a man!" **Dark Prince exclaimed. **"He was there when Zervan killed Kaileena! This creature is one of his generals!"**

"No shit, Captain Obvious!" I snapped, rolling my eyes. _Of course_ this thing had to be one of the Vizier's top minions! Just its size _alone_ had boss battle written all over it!

"Kai!" I shouted, not taking my eyes of the monster. "I'll try to distract it! Run for the exit!"

"Can't!" he yelled back. "It's closed off!"

"Don't be stupid, there's not even a door!" I said, my pupils turning into pinpricks when I saw Farah standing by the entrance of the corridor trying to push her way through an invisible force field.

"The boy is right! Some strange power is blocking the way back!"

Oh yeah, _definitely_ a boss battle…

I leaped onto the bleachers and ran to the very top row, trying to escape through the open roof. It was no use: the entire arena seemed to be shielded, allowing people to enter but not allowing them to leave.

A massive fist crushed the bench beside me and I ran down again and grabbed Kai just in time before another fist slammed down on his hidingplace.

"We must find a way to destroy that thing," Farah stated.

"And how do you suggest we do that?" I sweatdropped. "Use harsh language?!"

"**We must go for the eyes!" **Dark Prince spoke up. **"It cannot kill us if it cannot see us!"**

"Us?" Farah narrowed her eyes. "What makes you think we trust you?"

"**Oh, don't worry about that, I'll still try to kill you later. However, for now you three are much more useful as decoys."**

"_Decoys?!_" I went bug-eyed. "Hell no!"

"**Ah, I assume **_**you**_** are volunteering to get up there and gauge his eyes out then? Really, I don't mind, it's all the same to me."**

I looked at the Dark Prince, at the jawless brute, back at the Dark Prince again.

"Oh, fine! I'll be the friggin' decoy!" I threw up my hands in exasperation.

"Run!" Farah yelled, pulling me and Kai along before the monster could crush us under his feet. I glanced at my brother, wondering how he was able to keep up with us with his small legs. Then I noticed that his legs weren't that small at all…

I hadn't realized it during all the confusion, but the ten-year old looked like he had aged at least three years with a growth spurt to match. But his eyes… his eyes looked so much older.

Something was definitely wrong.

"Kai… what's happening to-"

A giant hand suddenly wrapped itself around my body, plucking me off the ground and hoisting me into the air.

"EEEEEEEK!!!" I shrieked, wildly kicking my legs in an attempt to free myself from the giant's grasp. "Put me down! Put me down! I'm not a snack!!! Really! I'm all skin and bones! Do you have any idea how hard it will be to chew me without a jaw?!"

The giant roared when Dark Prince suddenly leaped off the bleachers and landed on its belt. He lashed out with the Daggertail, whipping it around the creature's neck and swinging himself onto its face, where he plunged the Dagger of Time into one of its glowing eyes.

The beast howled in agony and in a fit of rage, flung me away. Dark Prince was nimble and managed to hop down the monster's stomach, landing gracefully on the soft grass. I, however, was sailing helplessly through the air, the bleachers approaching with deadly velocity.

'I'm gonna die!' it flashed through my mind before something else… something magical… took over.

As if the world around me moved in slow motion, I closed my eyes and spread my arms. A ripple traveled down my spine, my bones breaking and morphing into new shapes and my muscles stretching and twisting to fit my changing form.

Strangely I did not feel pain; I only felt a surge of raw power and an overwhelming sense of freedom when feathers sprouted from my skin… and my body fell apart into a flock of birds.

* * *

**A/N:** Robin has new powers! Kai is going to warp speed puberty! Farah lost her bow! A strange woman is stalking them! And I don't feel like writing a proper authors note! Can things get any crazier? 

The answer is probably yes.


	10. Birds of a feather

**A/N:** Sorry for the slow update! I've been busy with college, which is pretty much killing me. What was I thinking! Oh well, things are slowing down, so the next update should be faster ;)

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 10: ****Birds of a feather**

Free.

It was the first thought that entered my mind.

I was free.

The sensation was nearly impossible to describe. The crows were like my limbs, attached to an invisible body. I could control each one of them like the fingers attached to my hands. Separate, yet one whole. My whole life, I had always felt like something was missing. As if deep down inside, a hidden part of my soul lay dormant until the Sands of Time were unleashed and jolted it awake. For two seconds… two blissful seconds… I felt complete. Then suddenly, realization hit me like a ton of bricks and I instinctively panicked, the birds that were my form doing the same. They shrieked and wildly flapped their wings in a desperate attempt to stay airborne, but failed to find the right rhythm and spiraled down, crashing on the bleachers in a messy heap. The second the flock touched down, I lost control changed back to my human form.

"Wha…. What?" I mumbled, my head still reeling. Still in a daze, I got up and ran my fingers through my once red hair. It had reverted to its original color, purple strands now framing my face. My clothes were damaged from the fall, hanging from my body in shreds and revealing various cuts and bruises. Strangely, my wounds were healing at a ridiculous rate, disappearing before my eyes.

What had just happened?

A black feather with a purple shine floated down and landed at my feet. I picked it up, my memories slowly coming back to me.

"Birds… I changed into… EEEEEEEEEEEEKK!!"

I shrieked when a large hand grabbed me once again and yanked me off my feet.

"Oh, hell no! Not this again!" I yelled, managing to grab my sword and plunge it into the creature's thumb. It howled in pain and loosened its grip, allowing me to squirm my way out of its grasp. Without thinking, I ran up the beast's arm, climbed onto its face and plowed my blade into its remaining eye.

I listened to its agonized roars, satisfied that I had successfully blinded the monster. Then I blinked when I realized that there was just one slight problem:

How the hell was I going to get down?!

"Dark Prince? Farah? Little help up here!" I yelped when the creature started running in circles, blindly clawing at his head trying to get rid of me.

I was too panicked to even think about what had happened to me earlier: I was clinging to the straps of the monster's mask for dear life, my mind feverously racing for a way out of this mess.

Dark Prince slashed away at the monsters calves while Farah shouted and flung rocks in an attempt to distract it. My life flashed before my eyes when the creature violently tossed its head back and threw me off.

I heard the Dark Prince laugh and Farah scream in horror as I plummeted towards the ground, but something soft caught me in my fall and slowed carried me down onto the grass. When I looked, I just caught a glimpse of a cloud of sand dispersing and vanishing into thin air.

"Sis," a squeaky voice asked, "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm…"

I never finished that sentence. My eyes widened and my jaw dropped when I saw Kai floating above the grass, surrounded by a whirlwind of magical sands. His hair was blowing upwards, defying all laws of gravity, and the sheer energy that radiated off him was almost impossible to bear.

His eyes suddenly rolled back in his head and he fell to the ground, his face pale as a sheet. I now noticed that he had ripped his clothes, his chest broader and his legs far too tall for a ten-year old boy. I now also realized why his voice had sounded so strange: In less than an hour… he had aged three years and was going through puberty far ahead of schedule.

Dark Prince looked mildly interested, until the monster growled and the temptation of supersized mindless slaughter became too much for the demon to resist. While he charged at the blinded creature like a giddy schoolgirl, Farah kneeled down next to me, brushing some hair from my brother's face.

"How did you children get these powers?" she asked me, worried.

"Powers?" I repeated in a daze, and suddenly, without warning, everything came back to me. Shaking, I looked at my hands, half-expecting them to turn into wings.

Crows…

But how…?

No…

No…

No…

No…

No…

It was so obvious… so ridiculously obvious, that it had not entered my mind even once. It explained everything, from my cold-blooded inner swordswoman to my strange ability to fly.

My parents had not been kidnapped by sand creatures… they _were_ the sand creatures.

A vision danced before my eyes, of me and Kai running from our house and then later escaping from the hotel, the Crow Master hot on our tail and pleading with us to stop.

I believed he was trying to trick us, but only now did I realize what he had been desperately trying to tell us. He wasn't our enemy… he was our father.

I think my brain blew a fuse at that point, because I followed Kai's example and fainted at the spot. Before darkness overtook my mind and I lost consciousness, I had one last vision: a crow flying straight at me, it's glowing eyes meeting my own. And a incredible sense of peace overwhelmed me.

* * *

"Robin… Robin… hey, are you alright?"

I groggily opened my eyes, looking at Prince who trying to bring me back to my senses. His hair was soaking wet and Farah was standing next to him, holding a now empty soda can that someone had left behind. I always got annoyed at people who littered, but needless to say they were now forgiven.

Which was more then I could say for a certain Prince of Persia…

"Why didn't you tell me?" I hissed, jumping to my feet and glaring daggers at the royal.

"Tell you what?" he asked nervously, only increasing my anger.

"That I'm a friggin _sand creature_, you pea brain!" I yelled, throwing up my hands.

"Human/sand creature hybrid, to be exact…"

"WHAT?"

"Your mother didn't start out as a Harem Girl, she was born human. Your father on the other hand… well, that's a different story," he said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head.

"What's going on?" Farah asked confused and I rolled my eyes.

"Well, according to Prince boy, apparently you tried to kill my parents."

"You mean those sand creatures…" she started, her eyes growing large. Then she leaned in closer and whispered: "They can _do_ that?"

"Oh dear god, thank you so much for those mental images!" I exclaimed when her remark sunk in. Like I had not been scarred for life already…

"Robin, does it really matter?"

I blinked at Prince's question, not sure what he meant.

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't your parents raise you? Feed you? Protect you? Love you?"

"I guess," I muttered, looking away. Yeah, mom and dad were a bit quirky at times… especially dad… but they had always been there for us and I wouldn't trade them for the world.

"They might look differently on the outside, but on the inside they are still your parents, Robin," the royal continued. "You must forgive them."

"Why should I!" I yelled, tears burning behind my eyes and anger suddenly welling up inside of me. "If they cared for me, then why would they hide something like this, huh! Why did they lie to us! Do you know what it's like to always feel like something is missing? Like a part of your soul is asleep? How it feels to stare at the sky for hours and have this unexplainable desire to join the birds burning a hole in the core of your very being! It hurts, Prince! It hurts! And I will never forgive them!"

"Robin, wait!" he shouted, but I had already turned on the ball of my foot and ran for the exit. With the beast defeated, the barrier was lifted and I raced through the corridor. I didn't even care about the potential danger on the other side, escape the only thing on my mind.

I closed my eyes shut for a few second, fighting back the tears that were forming and threatened to run down my face. I had to get away… away from Farah, away from the Prince, away from every damned thing that had to do with videogames.

My father was a sand creature, the words kept repeating themselves in my mind. He had lied to me, and so had my mother. Why hadn't they told me the truth? Had they never seen me looking at my pet parakeet Socrates in envy, my jealousy of his ability to fly slowly eating away at me? Had they never seen me desperately stare at those ancient samurai swords during our latest visit to the museum, wanting nothing more than to yank them from the wall and take one for myself? All my life I had struggled with these strange desires that I didn't understand until now. I had felt so alone, so incredibly alone, and they never told me why… _He_ had never told me why.

"I won't forgive you for this, dad," I angrily wiped another tear from my eye and continued to run down the street. "I will _never_ forgive you for this…"


	11. Children of the Sands

**A/N:** Whoa, I can't believe it has been nearly a month since my last update! I was really struggling with this particular chapter and getting it out feels like there has been a gigantic weight lifted off my shoulders. Whew! Things should go more smoothly from here on… for now ;)

Enjoy!

* * *

**Chapter 11: Children of the Sands**

I stopped running and sat down on a park bench. I didn't even remember entering a park, but at the moment, I couldn't be bothered to care. I looked to my side, where I saw a German newspaper laying discarded in the grass. I could only guess what had happened to its owner, though the spatters of blood betrayed that this wasn't an ordinary case of littering.

"Germany, huh?" I mumbled, glancing at the front page. "Well, at least I didn't end up in North Korea… Or Disneyland."

I sighed, resting my head in my hands. I had been an idiot to run away: if the planet layout shifted again, Prince and the others would never find me. Then again, could he really blame me? It isn't every day that you find out one of your parents comes from a videogame and isn't even human. I had lost it and fight-or-flight instinct kicked in, a need to just get away from it overriding my common sense.

I put my feet on the bench and lied down on my back, looking absentmindedly at the clouds drifting by. I had left Kai alone to fend for himself, but I wasn't really worried about his safety: Farah had somehow figured out Dark Prince's averseness to water and would not be hesitant to use it, should he try anything funny. She would protect the little twerp… that was, if he didn't die from old age instead. Something was causing my little brother to rapidly grow older at random intervals, and no one had a clue what could be triggering it, or how to stop the process. My guess that, since the Vizier was the cause of all this chaos, killing him was the solution. Or so I hoped…

My thoughts returned to the Prince: I didn't want to face the Vizier alone, but I hoped it would take the royal some time to find me. I needed be alone and think things over a bit. Who was that strange cloaked woman who had saved me? Why couldn't I control my powers? And if my father was a Crow Master, did that make me a Crow Mistress? How did _that_ work anyway?

Dad…

I sat up and sighed again. Yeah, maybe I overreacted a bit, but still… why didn't they tell me? I guess they just wanted me and Kai to have a normal childhood like everyone else, and as long as our powers remained dormant, we could have easily passed as fully human and be non the wiser. It's not like we would've believed them anyway…

Unfortunately, now that a portal had opened and the Sands of Time had been unleashed onto our world, our sand creature heritage had been activated. And as more and more magic poured from Prince's world into ours, dad's part of our genetic make-up was slowly starting to grow more dominant.

But what about Kai? Dad did not have time powers… did he? It would explain how he always beat me to the door when I tried to sneak out to go to the movies when I should be in my room, doing my math homework.

I sweatdropped at that memory: yeah, dad was a bit weird at times, but we were really just like any other family. We had the same Kodak moments, the same fights, and the same corny Christmas dinners… though we never ate turkey or other kinds of poultry. I remembered going to a KFC restaurant with the intention of trying what chicken would taste like. Since dad wouldn't let us have any, I had become curious. But when I saw a guy walk out with a bucket of chicken wings, I suddenly became ill at the sight and threw up on the pavement. I had no problem with beef or pork, but just the thought of eating a bird made me sick to my stomach. It was only now that my strange hypocrisy towards eating animals, finally made sense.

I looked up at a flock of pigeons flying over the park and smiled. Prince was right: sand creatures or not, they were still my parents and were only trying to protect me. I could always pout and give them the silent treatment _after_ we kicked Zervan's ass and fixed this mess.

"Hey! Down here!" I yelled, but the birds just ignored me and landed on a statue, minding their own business. I slumped and hung my head when I realized these were just ordinary birds, not send by my father.

"Figures. Now that I want him to find me, he's nowhere to be seen," I muttered, kicking a rock in frustration. Suddenly, I was startled by a high pitched scream, followed by what sounded like two swords clashing violently. The sound was faint, like it was very far away and seemed to be coming from everywhere around me.

"Who's there?" I called, looking left and right. "What's going on?"

A gust of wind blew behind me, and I turned just around to see a familiar looking sand creature appearing seemingly out of nowhere, limping her way towards me. Apparently I had stumbled upon an invisible border between this country and… well, whatever place lied on the other side.

"Robin! Run!" she yelled, and I finally recognized her.

"Mom?" I blinked. "What are you doing here? Where's-?"

"You know?" she asked, then her eyes suddenly widened in panic. "There's no time! Quick! Up that tree!"

Before I could react, she grabbed my wrist and dragged me towards a large oak. To startled to ask any questions, I climbed the stem and hid between the leaves. Mom followed me and looked at me with sheer terror in her eyes.

"Mom, what's going-?"

"Shhh!" she cut me off, motioning me with trembling hands to be quiet.

Another gust of wind drew my attention and I quietly moved aside a few leaves to sneak a peek, immediately wishing I hadn't.

Crows, at east fifteen of them, crossed the invisible border and turned into the figure I now knew was my father. But something was different, something was… off. I couldn't quite place it, but it was almost like his aura had changed somehow. When I first saw him back at our house, I had been afraid, but that was because I had still seen him as an evil sand creature from a violent videogame. He had not really 'felt' hostile, like Dark Prince or Zervan's crazy minions. But something about his energy had changed and now just looking at him made my hairs stand up and my blood run cold.

"Dad…" I whispered, my own hands now shaking as well. I looked sideways at mom, suddenly noticing that her clothes had turned brown and that her body was leaking sand. My breath hitched in my throat when I put one and one together and all I could do was stare at her injuries, refusing to believe the horrible conclusion that had formed in my mind.

"It's not his fault…" she whispered, and I had caught her just in time before she lost her balance. Whatever had happened, she had only barely survived.

A third gust of wind made me look down again and I felt all blood drain from my face. From the barrier emerged a gold colored creature, unlike anything I had ever seen before. Its aura brimmed with sheer evilness, even stronger than that of Dark Prince.

'Obey us,' voices began to sang quietly in the back of my head. It was like a siren's call, numbing my senses and lulling me into a trance.

'Obey us, serve us, only us. We are children of the Sands, we are one. Nothing else matters. Do not resist our song.'

"Robin! Ignore it! Tune them out!" my mother hissed, shaking my shoulder and snapping me out of my daze.

"W-What…?" I uttered, blinking and trying to get rid of the fog that seemed to wrap itself around my mind. The voices disappeared from my head and were replaced by what felt like the hangover from hell. Ugh… how long had I been out?

I looked down at the demon and now saw what, or rather who, was hiding behind a pair of gold colored wings.

Oh, crap…

"Where has she gone? I could have sworn she passed through this barrier," Zervan asked and I nearly died when he looked up, but not seeing us.

"Yes, but unfortunately it seems the traitor has managed to escape," dad answered and I wanted to scream at him just what the flying batshit he though he was doing making smalltalk to that creep.

"Hunt that woman down and destroy her," the Vizier ordered and to my horror, dad nodded.

"She will pay for her insolence!" Zervan growled, balling his fist. "Those who do not submit, must perish. How dare that wench defy me!"

"As you wish, my lord," my father bowed, then turned into a flock of crows and left. Zervan scowled at no one in particular and spread his wings, flying away into the distance.

"It's not his fault," my mother whispered again before her eyes rolled back in her head and she toppled off the branch.

"MOM!" I shouted, jumping down and landing on the grass next to her. She was out cold and not hidden by the shade of the tree, her injuries looked a lot more serious than they had at first. Sand creatures were tough, but they were not invincible. My mother had taken a great deal of damage and I wasn't sure if she had enough energy left to heal on her own.

"Robin!" I heard Prince call and I saw him appearing on the other end of the park, Farah still by his side.

"Prince! Quick! Over here!" I yelled, waving one arm to draw his attention,

"What are you… oh no," he said, when he laid eyes on my mother's unconscious form. He kneeled down next to me and inspected her wounds, his face paling.

"This doesn't look good," he worried. "We need to find sand, and fast, or else I might fear it will be too late."

"You actually want to _help_ this thing?" Farah scoffed, glancing at Prince with distrust.

"That 'thing' happens to be my mom!" I snapped, glaring daggers at the Indian Princess, who ignored me. She suddenly seemed fascinated by my mother's face, her eyes narrowing slightly.

"I have seen this creature before," she mumbled.

"Yeah, she was back at the hotel with-"

"No, before that…"

"Others like her attacked us in Azad!" Prince exclaimed, excited. "You _do_ remember!"

"Halt! Stop right there!" Farah suddenly snapped, stretching her arm to keep him at a distance. "I will admit that I find all of this curious, and that there are certain…things… that I can't explain myself. But don't think me a child, that I will believe such a fantastical tale without second thought."

"Then give me a chance to prove my words are more than mere fantasy!" he pleaded, grabbing hold of her hand. "Come with me! let's journey together once more, so that my presence may trigger your memories to return!"

Farah scowled and pulled her hand away, shooting Prince a warning glare.

"Maybe what you told me is true," she said, cocking an eyebrow. "Maybe we do share a history together, one that was erased from the Timeline itself. But any love I may have felt for you, has then been erased as well. I will travel with you, as we seem to share the same goal, but after we have defeated the Vizier, our ways will most likely part again. Do no get your hopes up."

"I will try," he smiled wryly and Farah gaze softened a bit.

"Hey, little help down here!" I broke up their cheesy moment, still holding my mother.

"Prince, give me the Dagger!" Farah ordered, snatching the blue blade from his belt before he could hand it over.

"What are you-!" he protested, but the warrior princess ignored him and started fumbling with the tiny silver switch on the handle. Suddenly, a cloud of sand was dispensed and absorbed by my mother's body. Her injuries healed before my very eyes and even her clothes slowly regained their colors. She had put on normal blue jeans and a white blouse, but somehow her new clothes were still connected to her health.

"Did someone get the number of that bus?" she groaned as she slowly opened her eyes and got up, still a bit shaky.

"Hey, Alex, how have you been?" Prince smiled and mom's eyes lit up.

"Prince!" she exclaimed excited, hugging the royal. "Oh man, how long has it been? I never did get a chance to say goodbye after… well, you know."

"It's only been a few months in my world, but it seems to have been quite a bit longer in yours," he said, nodding at me.

"24 trips around the sun," mom nodded. "It took Crow four years to reincarnate and find me, but we got married pretty soon after that and then a few years later…"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" I interrupted her. "Can we please start from the beginning here for those who were _not_ there 24 years ago?!"

"Yes, do enlighten us," Farah narrowed her eyes at my mother, still a bit weary.

Mom's expression darkened, her gaze cast to the ground. It was obvious she was uncomfortable, but I needed to know the truth and I needed to know it now.

"Look mom," I started. "I know about dad, or at least… what he is, or used to be, or whatever the crap his story is. I have powers… like, really, _really_ weird ones. I can fly, turn into a killing machine and change into a flock of birds. I'm not completely clueless you know…"

"I wish you didn't have to find out like that," she sighed, lowering her head. "I'm sorry we didn't tell you. We just wanted you two to grow up normally, without having to wrap your mind around the fact that you're not fully human and that mommy and daddy met in a videogame."

"You got stuck in the game?!" a voice behind me gawked and I nearly had a heart attack. "That is so cool! How'd you do that?!"

"Kai, what do you think you're doing?! Where'd you come from?" I exclaimed at the laughing 10-year old. The aging process seemed to have been reversed mostly, but he had kept a few months. His hair was longer and his muscles seemed to be more defined, if only a bit.

"He woke up after you left, but was just walking right behind us…" Farah said, confused. "How did you disappear?"

"I dunno…" Kai shrugged. "Prince and Farah were going too fast and then I teleported or something."

"Great, now pipsqueak even gets cool new teleport powers and all I get is a strange desire to eat worms," I muttered, rolling my eyes.

"That's just because I'm way cooler than… AAARGH! ROBIN! THERE'S A SAND-!" he suddenly yelped, scrambling to hide behind Prince.

"Kai, it's me," mom said, reaching out for him. He cautiously looked at her and her clothes, when something seemed to click.

"… Mom?"

She nodded and hugged him, then blinked as she took another good look at the boy.

"Kai, why do you look… older?"

"I got dad's bird powers, but he hasn't," I said. "Instead, he got time powers or something like that and now he's aging back and forth at random. We have no idea why…"

"But whatever it was, I didn't do it!" Kai quickly piped up, but mom wasn't listening anymore. Instead, she closed her eyes shut and groaned, clutching her side.

"Whatever attacked you, did quite a thorough job if one sand tank isn't enough to heal you back to full health," Prince cocked an eyebrow when he removed her hand and looked at the deep cut she had been holding. Then he stayed silent for a moment and looked her in the eyes.

"It was him, wasn't it?"

I had hoped she would say no, that my own suspicions would be proven false. But deep down I knew better than that.

"Crow didn't turn evil, Prince! The Sands did!" she suddenly snapped angrily, as if he had deeply offended her. "It's not his fault, you hear me?! That bastard Zervan-!"

"I think you'd better start at the beginning," Farah interrupted, no more harshness in her voice. Though none of us had a clue what was going on, we all knew that the situation was dead serious.

"Yeah, I suppose I should," she sighed, her eyes glazing over. "It all started when I was 16 years old and had no money left to buy a memory card…"


	12. Dark hearts

**Chapter 12: ****Dark hearts**

We listened in awe as mom told us her story. How she got sucked into Warrior Within, turned into a sand creature, met the Prince of Persia, barely survived her first Dahaka chase and entered the Garden Tower, only to end up in a twisted love/hate relationship with the Crow Master that nearly cost her her life several times.

Then she told us how he finally made the switch to the good guys, the fight against a demon that was the fused result of Kaileena's dark side and Isra, my mother's own 'Dark Prince'. The tale ended with my father sacrificing himself to save my mother, and his rebirth as a human being four years later.

Our astonishment was complete however, when she told us that our grandma had not died in a car crash before we were born. In fact, she had died less than 48 hours ago, at the hands of the Vizier…

"Kaileena was our grandmother?!" I exclaimed, my eyes big as dinner plates.

"Yes, though she became Empress of Time when I was two years old. Before that, she was still a human woman."

"Well, apparently the sands are not hindered by the boundaries of time and space," Prince said grimly, looking at Kai. "Your son has the ability to manipulate the sands, and I think it's pretty obvious he did not get it from his father's side of the family."

"I got my powers from the Empress of Time?" my brother asked. "Sweet!"

"Not 'sweet', you dork," I snapped. "You can't even control them!"

"Oh, like you can control yours!" he huffed. "We nearly got clobbered by that fat dude and all you did was panic and shriek like a banshee! Where were your kick-ass warrior skills then, huh?"

"Hey, I poked his eye out!"

"But I had to catch you!"

"But you were the one who got us trapped in that arena in the first place!"

"Nu-uh!"

"Juh-uh!"

"Kids!" mom snapped, glaring at both of us. "Stop bickering, or I'll-!"

"Send us to our rooms?" I couldn't help but snort. "We're all the way in Germany!"

"Oh, I'll think of something," she warned us, then turned to Farah, who had been quiet the whole time.

"Well?" she asked.

"Well what?" Farah cocked an eyebrow.

"Am I going to get an apology from you?"

"For what reason?"

"You SHOT me, you dolt!"

Farah fell over animestyle, glaring at my mother.

"I thought you were trying to attack those children!"

"Yeah, I bet you did," mom glared and from the corner of my eye, I could see Prince cover his face with his palm.

"24 years and she hasn't changed a bit," he groaned, shaking his head.

"I heard that!"

"Well," Farah began, folding her arms, "we now know what happened to you, but what about that other sand creature? Did you two split up to search or your children?"

"Crow… he…" mom sighed and sat down on a park bench. "After Robin and Kai fled from our house, we went back inside to search their rooms. I got rid of the cursed memory card, but saved my old playstation as a memento, hiding it in the attic just in case. Apparently I had not hidden it well enough, and when we saw it standing in Robin's room, the opened trilogy box set next to it on the floor, it became pretty obvious what had happened. When Crow touched the sands that were scattered throughout her room, he began to have visions. He saw Kai touching the glowing game disk, the sands exploding from Robin's TV and my mother being killed by Zervan, who wanted to harness the power of the sands to become immortal."

She gritted her teeth and balled her fists, anger flashing in her eyes.

"Then we saw my worst fear come to life. A second Isra, this time in the shape of Dark Prince. We both still remembered what had happened when the sands infected me and gave life to my own darkness. Isra was malicious, cruel and many times stronger than even Crow himself, where my normal form did not even stand a chance. And the good side of Prince alone was already stronger than my husband! We didn't dare to imagine the power his dark alter ego might wield…"

She sighed, looking away.

"It was when Crow came in contact with the sands, that things began to go downhill. The vizier had complete control over the sands, and since he was corrupted, the sands had become corrupted as well. Like the sand creatures on the Island of Time were overtaken by darkness when their Empress gave into her dark side, Crow began to feel the effects of the sand's corruption as well. I was turned into a sand creature when I got sucked into warrior within, and though I turned human again eventually, a part of the sands still remained dormant in my body. With the releasing of the sands in our world, that part of me was awakened once more and I could feel the darkness creeping into my mind. But I was only a sand creature on the outside and all I noticed was a strange, uneasy feeling. It was Crow, who really suffered. His old form had been activated and he was now fully a sand creature once more. He experienced more than just an unpleasant sensation in his stomach. He could hear voices, the sands telling him to join them and serve the Vizier. Their singing was intoxicating, hypnotizing and enticing my husband into a delirious trance."

She suddenly smiled, her eyes lighting up.

"But he fought them! He fought them for me… for us! No matter how seductive their siren's call echoed in his head, he refused to give into the darkness. Unfortunately, they grew louder with every step we came closer to the Vizier. We figured that the only way to save Robin and Kai, regain our human bodies and fix this whole mess, was to kill Zervan and free my mother's spirit from his black heart. But as we got closer to that monster, the singing of the sands grew louder and more difficult to ignore. I became increasingly nauseated by the uneasy feeling, and I was only one, maybe two percent sand creature! I could only imagine what Crow was going through and I begged him to stay behind and let me finish the job."

Her face darkened again, and for a moment, I wasn't sure if I wanted to hear the rest of her tale.

"It was no use though. No matter how many times I pleaded, he refused to let me face the Vizier alone. He knew I would never survive, and assured me that he was strong enough to hold off the darkness. And for a long time, I believed him. Everywhere around me, I saw former loyal soldiers of both the Maharajah of India and the King of Persia being transformed into sand creatures and giving into the will of the Vizier. But not Crow: in the midst of chaos, he stubbornly remained loyal to Kaileena, even if it sometimes took me up to five minutes to snap him out of his daze."

"But he couldn't fight them forever," Prince said and mom nodded sadly.

"Much like when I was caught in your world, Prince, the layout of this planet began shifting due to the disruption of time and space. But we eventually managed to track down the Vizier in a small village in New Zealand. Or… I _think_ it used to be a village. The place was completely destroyed, not one stone left upon another, the inhabitants either dead or turned into sand soldiers. I got angry at the sight and rushed at Zervan to make him pay. But that demon just smiled at me…"

She suddenly shivered.

"I'll never forget that cruel, wicked smile. I wanted nothing more than to wipe it from his face, but a hand grabbed my shoulder from behind and flung me away like a rag doll. When I got up and turned around, I saw Crow's eyes glow coldly, heard the Vizier ordering him to 'kill that pest' and everything after that is just one big blur."

"He attacked you," Farah said softly, and I could see she empathized with my mother. I guess she knew all too well what it was to have someone you trusted, suddenly turn around and stab you in the back.

"I defended myself with all my might, but he caught me completely by surprise. I cried and shouted at him to snap out of it, to fight back. But I don't think he even heard me any longer. He belonged to the sands now, and all I could do was run for dear life and pray Kai and Robin had not given in to the darkness as well."

"I could hear them," I shuddered. "When Zervan was almost directly below us, I could hear the sands calling for me, telling me to join them. It was almost impossible to resist."

"Your human half saved you from their spell," Prince concluded. "But we can only hope it will last. As the magic in this world grows stronger, so will your father's half of your genes. We must be careful."

"You worry about your own Isra, Prince," I said, my anger rising at the thought of the monster that took my father away from us. He would pay… oh, he would pay!!

"Mom," Kai said quietly, tugging at her shirt. "Will dad be okay? Do you think we can save him?"

My mother stayed silent for a moment, then looked down at my little brother and forced a smile, ruffling his hair.

"Don't worry, honey. We'll get him back, I promise."

Then grimly to herself, so soft that I could barely hear her:

"Even if I have to win his love all over again…"


	13. Déjà vu

**A/N:** I'm sorry for the long wait everyone, some things happened in my personal life that I needed to process first, and my writing had to take a place on the backburner. But I'm back! And to make up for it, here's an extra long chapter! Woohoo!

* * *

**Chapter 13: Déjà vu**

"We must find the Vizier," Prince said, drawing his blade.

"_And_ save my husband," mom countered, her face hardening.

"Zervan is our first priority," the royal corrected her. "Besides that, if we kill him, it might break his spell."

"No Prince," Farah spoke up. "Our first priority is to eat, rest and restock. We shall deal with the Vizier later."

We looked at our reflections in a puddle and realized she was right. Our clothes were tattered and hanging from our bodies in shreds. I had lost my sword in the previous boss battle, and Farah had yet to find a replacement for her bow. Also, night was about to fall and all of us were standing on our last legs.

"But Zervan-!" Prince protested, but the Indian princess cut him off.

"Prince, use your head!" she snapped at the royal. "I know you're eager to avenge your people and reclaim your throne, but to attack now, would be a fool's move. If we go charging at the Vizier like this, we'll have lost the battle before it has even started!"

"I agree with Farah," mom said. "The Vizier will be tough to beat and I doubt we'll get more than one shot at winning this fight. This is sudden death: if we lose, we _lose_, if you catch my drift. We can't half-ass our way through this one, and we'll need to be at our very best if we hope to bring that monster down. I want to kick that creep's ass as much as you do, but right now we're completely defenseless!"

"Yes you are, aren't you?" Prince said in a strange distorted voice, and I could see a cruel smile creeping on his face. My eyes widened in alarm, but before I could say anything, an explosion of black smoke blew us away.

"**Cower in fear, foolish mortals!"** the demon boasted, spreading his arms. **"For the Prince of Darkness has finally-"**

"Oh crap, I so do not want to deal with you right now!" I cut him off, smacking my forehead. "Go away! Scram! Shoo! Shoo!"

He sweatdropped, and glared venomously at me.

"**You'd be wise to show me some respect, girl,"** he growled, annoyed that I had ruined his grand entrance.

"Respect has to be earned, Isra," mom spat, narrowing her eyes.

"**I'm afraid you're confusing me with someone else, Alex,"** he said, making a mock bow. **"Call me 'Ahriman****'."**

"How about 'Dickhead'?"

Ahriman cocked an eyebrow, looking innocently at my mother.

"**Am I sensing a little hostility here?"**

"Oh, hell yes."

"**Why?"**

"You know damn well why, demon!" she hissed. "You killed my husband!"

"**I did no such thing,"** Dark Prince scoffed. **"That creature's demise was Isra's doing, not mine."**

He then grinned evilly.

"**I would have done a much more 'creative' job though… I mean, really now! You fuse with the dark side of the Empress of time, gain power beyond your wildest dreams, and what do you do with your enemies? You toss a Golem at them and that's pretty much it. How… mundane."**

"I'll show you 'mundane', you son of a-"

"**Finish that sentence and you're a dead woman,"** Dark Prince warned, annoyed that my mother wasn't cowering in fear and pleading for mercy.

"Am I not already?" she cocked an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you just came out to make small talk?"

Ahriman blinked, then suddenly flashed a chilling grin.

"**Ooh, that's right, I almost forgot,"** he said cheerfully, then suddenly lashed out at her with his daggertail.

"You honorless coward!" Farah yelled when my mother let out a pained cry as one of the blades scraped her arm. "I never thought you would stoop as low as to attack an unarmed woman!"

"_**Prince**_** would never do such a thing,"** Ahriman shrugged. **"But he's not in control now, is he?"**

I stood frozen as he continued to lash out at Farah and my mother, who were doing everything in their power to stay out of his reach. Then suddenly the daggertail swung in our direction and I could barely pull Kai back in time, the razor-sharp blades missing us by a hair.

"Kai, what are you waiting for?" I yelped. "Use your timepowers! Freeze that psycho!"

"I don't know how!" he panicked. "Can't you kick his ass with your combat skills?"

"How am I supposed to get close enough without a sword?! Catch that Daggertail with my teeth?!"

"Uh… yes?"

"Try again, shrimp!" I protested when Dark Prince laid his eyes on us and grinned wickedly.

"Retreat!" Farah cried while running towards us, mom following close behind. I didn't like the idea of running away with my tail between my legs, especially from that cocky bastard, but I liked the idea of losing my head even less. Then again, there was a third option and I was more than happy to use it.

"Oh, Dark Prince?" I asked sweetly.

"**What?"** He turned around and I met him with a sly grin.

"Think fast!" I laughed and grabbed an abandoned picnic blanket, soaked it in the puddle and flung it at the surprised demon. He instinctively tried to block it with the Daggertail, but it did him little good. A soaking wet shred of cloth still hit him square in the face and I smirked triumphantly, waiting for him to change back into the Prince.

I waited patiently, my victorious expression slowly twisted into a horrified one, when nothing happened.

"Okay Prince, this isn't funny… you can come out now!" I stammered, backing away when Ahriman slowly removed the cloth from his face and flashed a grin that made my blood run cold.

"**Well, isn't this interesting?"** he said, inspecting the soaked rag**. "I seem to be developing an immunity to water. How… convenient."**

"How about an immunity to dirt?" mom asked and before he could react, she grabbed a hand of mud and threw it in his face, effectively blinding him long enough to make a run for it.

"Quick! In there!" mom said, pointing at a large warehouse that was stationed just outside the park. Were we still in Germany or had we crossed into another country? I had no idea, but I'd worry about that later: there were more pressing matters that required my attention now… like a daggertail wielding freak bent on our destruction.

"Why didn't he change back?" I yelled, my life flashing before my eyes. "I hit him right between the eyes!"

"Though Prince's light side is dominant in his world, his dark side must be dominant in ours!" Farah yelled back. "And as the magic of the Sands of Time grows stronger, so does he!"

"So you're basically saying we're done for?"

"We will be, if we do not find weapons soon!"

Not daring to look back, we ran for our lives and entered the warehouse, the automatic glass doors closing shut behind us.

"The technology of this world is amazing," Farah remarked.

"Well, I hope you don't mind if we skip the tour," I said to her when we heard the glass shattering, Ahriman laughing at the destruction he had caused.

"Quick! In that elevator!" mom shouted, rushing towards the steel doors on the other side of the store. I grabbed a clothes rack and knocked it over to slow down our pursuer, and followed the others in the small metal cabin.

"Come on, come on… close!" I muttered as I feverishly pressed the buttons. After what seemed like an eternity, the doors finally closed, a mere second before the Dark Prince got within range. I cringed when I heard him lash out on the other side, the Daggertail deflecting off the heavy steel doors. After a few failed attempts, it stayed quiet or a second and then… a cry suddenly echoed through the elevator cabin.

"Kai, what's wrong?!" mom asked, whirling around and grabbing the shaking boy. His eyes were glowing bright, his hair fluttering in the wind and his body growing older before our eyes.

Another pained groan escaped him and to my horror, the elevator doors slowly began to open again.

"Dagger…" he breathed hoarsely, and suddenly everything fell into place.

"Kai, hold on! Fight him!" I ordered, glancing nervously at the small opening between the doors. If that thing grew only a few centimeters wider, we'd all be daggertail shish kebab!

"Can't…" He moaned, closing his eyes shut.

"What is he doing?" mom asked me.

"I don't know how he's doing it, and I don't think he knows either. But Ahriman is trying to use the Dagger to rewind time and Kai is stopping him somehow… or trying to at least."

We looked at the crack between the door, which grew a bit smaller, wider, smaller, wider again. It was like Kai and Dark Prince were holding a tug-of-war with the fabric of time itself, and the Empress' grandson was slowly losing ground.

"Come on, kid!" Farah pleaded. "All we need is time to move forward for eight seconds. Then we'll have crossed the Dagger's limit and Ahriman will not be able to harm us!"

Kai narrowed his glowing eyes and gritted his teeth, fighting back with all his might and willing the stream of time to flow forward again. My eyes however, were no longer on the door. Horrified, they rested on my brother's form, which was aging at an alarming rate. 12 years… 13 years… 15… 17… 21…

"It's the sands!" I gasped, drawing the others' attention. "Kai! Don't use your timepowers! The human half of your body can't handle them!"

"Just a little longer…" he whispered, his glowing eyes flaring up. 25 years old… 27…

"KAI!" mom yelled, shaking his shoulders, but not breaking through his trance. When his now adult body reached age 30, I decided that enough was enough.

"Sorry twerp, but this is for your own good!" I said as I pushed my mother aside and smacked him in the face as hard as I could.

"Eight seconds," Farah said quietly while she glanced at the steel doors while the lift began to move up, Ahriman's angry shrieks faintly echoing through the elevator shaft. "He made it…"

"Yeah, but at what price," I muttered while holding the unconscious boy. My slap had snapped him out of it, but then he had acutely passed out from exhaustion.

"Kai…" mom whispered, stroking his forehead.

"Don't worry mom, he'll be alright. Look, he's already growing younger again!"

We looked at my brother, who was already getting shorter, his face becoming rounder and his muscles fading away. Unfortunately, the de-aging process was going far too slow for my liking and stopped entirely when he was 11 years old. Like a bouncing ball, he went from young to old, to young again. But when you drop a ball, it will never bounce back to the exact same height. Some energy, no matter how little, would always be lost. Every time Kai used the sands to manipulate the fabric of time, his own life-force lost some of its energy. Unlike Kaileena, he was still part human and not build to deal with the backlash of using his own body to control the flow of time.

"Whoa… what happened?" He groaned, slowly getting back to his senses. "Why are my feet hurting?"

"Because they grew," mom said, taking off his shoes, which were now far too small. "You aged about a year when you used your timepowers."

"Does this mean I get two birthday presents next month?"

"It means you can't use the sands to mess with the timeline," I said, still a bit shaken. "Your body can't handle the stress."

"Aww, man! Not fair! How come you get to use your powers freely and mine just come around to bite me in the butt?"

"Because, you dork, I'm not manipulating the very fabric of time itse-!"

All of us were startled when the lights flickered and the elevator came to a screeching halt.

I yelped when I heard someone banging on the floor from underneath the elevator, followed by an evil cackle.

"**You can run, but you can't hide!"** Ahriman laughed, and a metallic clank echoed through the cabin. **"Sooner or later, I will find a way in!"**

"Yeah, right!" I scoffed. "And how many hours is that going to take you? This isn't some lame wooden cage on a rope that you can just smash to piece, Ahriman! You'll run out of sand before you unscrewed one bolt!"

I smirked at the elevator floor, but then shrieked when the Daggertail came lashing right through, cutting through the thick steel like butter.

"Okay… plan B anyone?" I panicked.

"Up there!" my mother pointed at the ceiling. "Through the emergency hatch!"

She turned to Farah, who nodded and got down on one knee, allowing mom to climb on her shoulders and reach the hatch.

"Come on, come on…" she muttered, fumbling with the lock.

"Gods! What do you sand creatures eat?!" Farah asked trying to keep her balance.

"Hey! How about YOU pop out two kids first and then try and see if you can still fit into that armor of yours!"

Their bickering was interrupted when a charcoal black hand suddenly reached through the crack in the floor and grabbed hold of the Princess' ankle.

"Oh no, you don't!" I shouted, raising my foot and stomping down on his wrist as hard as I could.

"I got it!" mom called, opening the hatch and climbing through. She reached down for Kai, Farah helping him up through the opening and onto the roof. Then she followed herself and helped me up, seconds before the Daggertail came crashing through the elevator floor again.

"That contraption can't shield us from him forever," the Indian princess stated grimly. "We must find a larger volume of water and hope that the Prince of Persia can still be saved. At the very least, we should try to arm ourselves with suitable weaponry. If it comes down to hand-to-hand combat, I fear our chances will be very slim."

"I used to have a dagger… but Crow knocked it out of my hands," mom said, her face hardening. She then reached for the metal doors above us and forced them open, granting access to the third floor.

"What the… oh, awesome! We're in an IKEA!" I said, looking at the furniture around us.

"IKEA?" Farah blinked. "What's an 'IKEA'?"

"A store that has a indoor restaurant! If we can find that, we'll also find water!"

"If we live that long!" Kai yelped when we heard a loud crash coming from the elevator shaft.

"Quick! Hide!" mom ordered and we quickly scrambled for cover. Quite literally, since we were in the bedroom department. Mom grabbed Kai and hid in a large dresser, while I and Farah crawled underneath a queen-sized bed, just in time before Dark Prince came rushing through the open doors, his glowing eyes darting left and right.

"_We_ need to find water, before _he_ finds us," Farah whispered grimly. "Where is this restaurant you speak of?"

"I don't know, but if it's not on this floor, we're screwed. The elevator is destroyed and there's no way we can outrun him on the stairs. Math isn't really my strong suit, but I know that daggertail of his isn't bothered by steps and thus can travel diagonally much faster than we can."

"We must find water around here then, or find a way to distract him," the Indian Princess nodded, then gave me a long stare.

"Oh no!" I hissed quickly, glaring back the warrior woman. "I'm not going out there as sand psycho bait!"

"You are the only one of us with a weapon!"

"You mean the one I chucked at that fat giant's face?" I snorted sarcastically. "Well, if you're offering to go back there and fetch it…"

"I mean your powers," the Indian Princess whispered impatiently. "Assume your avian form! Fly low enough to grab his attention, but high enough to stay out of reach. I'll then slip away and find water so we may free the Prince from his demonic form."

I looked back at her and nodded. It was a crazy idea… but maybe it was just crazy enough to work. I closed my eyes and focused on the birds I had changed into earlier. I tried to recall images of the sky, the feeling of the wind brushing my bare skin and the sensation of soaring freely through the clouds. I stayed concentrated in that almost meditative state for a good two minutes… then I opened my eyes again and sweatdropped.

"Yeah… I got nothing."

Farah who had been watching me intensely, fell over, looking at me bug-eyed.

"Not even a singe feather?" she asked in disbelief.

"Nope," I smiled sheepishly, scratching the back of my head.

"Well, this is just-"

My eyes widened and I quickly clamped a hand over her mouth when a metal boot set down in front of our hiding place.

"**I know you're around here somewhere,"** Ahriman cooed, his daggertail dangling from his arm and trailing behind him like a metallic snake.** "Come out, come out, wherever you are."**

Yeah… like _that_ was going to happen, I thought to myself as I listened to his venom laced words. I couldn't help but notice that his voice, though dark and malicious, was actually quite sexy. I had a bit of a weak spot for voices, and mentally smacked myself for that remark. No Robin! Bad girl! Now is not the time to ogle your enemy!

I nearly jumped when Ahriman lashed out with his Daggertail, smashing a nightstand. A small cloud of sand was released and then absorbed by his body, the symbols on his skin glowing brightly as his energy was recharged. Great… so much for just riding it out.

Suddenly, my eyes fell on the ceiling, or rather: the sprinklers. Of course!

"Farah, see those small metal thingies on the ceiling plates?" I whispered, nudging the Indian princess. "If we can hit the fire-alarm, they will start to spray water."

"What is a fire-alarm?"

"Just leave it to me," I assured her. "Just find a way to distract him for a few seconds and-"

The sound of breaking wood and a dark laugh suddenly drew our attention.

"**Found you!"** I heard Dark Prince exclaim victoriously, followed by a startled cry from mom and my brother.

"Robin! Don't-!" Farah called, but it was already too late. With a primordial scream, I lifted the bed, dashed at the malicious demon and heat butted him square in the chest, allowing Kai and my mother to free themselves from the remains of the closet.

Where my blood had previously turned into ice, it now boiled with rage. Before Dark Prince could regain his bearings, I charged at him again and landed a spinning kick against his temple. My motions were fluid like quicksilver, my attacks precise and without flaw.

"How dare you lay a hand on the descendants of the Empress!" I hissed in a voice that was not my own, looking down on him with pure hatred.

Dark Prince blinked in surprise, then got up again, smirking evilly.

"**You caught me off guard, I'll give you that,"** he smirked, wiping a thin trail of blood from the corner of his mouth. **"But don't think you'll be able to pull that off twice."**

"Defeat does not suit you, Ahriman," I rasped, not really hearing his words. "Let us continue this."

"Robin, you don't have a blade! Don't-!" Farah warned, but I glared at her, my eyes glowing brightly.

"Stay out of this, mortal. This is none of your concern."

With an inhuman screech, I ascended off the ground and flew at the dark demon with the intention of ripping his head clean off his shoulders. Unfortunately, Ahriman was prepared this time and attacked with the Daggertail before I could get close enough to land a hit. I shrieked when one of the razor-sharp blades cut my leg, then again when another one struck my face, leaving a long, deep gash. Maybe I did have dad's skill, but it wasn't going to do my much good without a sword. Still… I couldn't care less about my own safety, or even making it out of this battle alive. All that mattered was protecting the daughter of the Empress and her son.

_Especially_ her son…

"Hope you can swim, Dickhead!" I suddenly heard my mother exclaim and a eardrum shattering ring sounded trough the building. She had made it to the fire-alarm and a welcome rain came pouring down from the sprinklers.

A high-pitched shriek echoed through the bedroom department and in an explosion of black smoke, Ahriman finally changed back into the kindhearted Prince of Persia.

"That was enough… but barely," he sighed after catching his breath. "He is growing stronger with every transformation and it will take more and more water to break his spell. I fear that soon he will develop a full immunity and then nothing will be able to stop him."

"Oh, don't worry about that," I heard myself growl while I bared my teeth.

"Robin? What are you-"

"DIE!!"

Before he could even see it coming, I flew at Prince and punched him in the face, sending him crashing into a bunk bed. I had caught him completely by surprise and he was too stunned to defend himself.

"I want to win with honor," I hissed, looking down at his fallen form. "Get back on your feet!"

"ROBIN! Are you nuts?! Stop this right now!" my mother yelled, grabbing my arm before I could move in for the kill. I yanked myself free and pushed her away.

"You should not be here, your highness. This man wishes to kill you. Please step aside."

"I don't care if he wishes to dance around dressed like an alien prostitute! I don't know what's gotten into you young lady, but lay one hand on sand boy and you're grounded for life!"

"Grounded…?"

I blinked, slowly coming back to my senses. Hey, wait a minute… what the hell was I doing?

"Robin, it's okay! I'm back to normal and-"

I cast one look at the Prince who had just freed himself from the rubble, and instantly my vision clouded again.

"Death!!" I shrieked enraged, charging at the unsuspecting royal. "Death to all of those who wish harm to the descendants of the Empress!"

"Robin, calm down!! The Prince of Persia is not your enemy!"

That voice…

The veil that shrouded my mind lifted slightly. I shifted my focus from the Persian royal to a cloaked figure who was standing near the broken elevator. The same figure who had saved my life earlier.

"You must learn to control your powers, before they turn against you," she urged and I caught a glimpse of a pair of black eyes staring back at me from under the hood.

"I know you…" I murmured, memories from long forgotten times trying to claw their way to the surface. Memories from before my childhood, before I was even born. Memories that belonged to my father…

"Your connection with your father and other creatures of the sand is growing stronger," she said as if reading my mind. "Too strong perhaps. They have already been overtaken by the darkness, we must not allow the same to happen to us. Do not let your newfound strength consume you."

"Us…" I murmured, something in my mind seeming to click. Suddenly I snapped out of my daze and looked at her with wide eyes. "Hey, wait a minute! What do you mean by 'us'? Who are you?!"

"I-I must leave," the cloaked woman stammered, backing away.

"No, wait!" Prince called, reaching out. "Please show us your face! I wish to express my proper thanks to the one who has aided us!"

"No, you never should even have seen me," she shook her head. "You would never forgive…"

"Finish them! Finish them all!"

All of us turned to staircase where a horde of sand creatures made their way onto our floor. Before we knew what was going on, we were completely surrounded with no possible hope of escape. Oh crap… didn't those things have others to stalk?

"You wouldn't happen to carry a blade underneath that cloak, would you?" Farah asked grimly, assuming a defensive stance.

"As a matter of fact, I do," the hooded woman smirked, pulling out two twin blades that looked sharp enough to cut through bone.

With a loud yell, she suddenly charged at one of the archers and removed his head clean from his shoulders. She then quickly picked up his bow and quiver, tossing them at a very grateful Indian Princess.

"This is more like it," she smirked, grabbing an arrow and firing it at the nearest soldier. Unfortunately, the small arrows deflected off his metal armor and the creature flashed her a devious grin.

"Give it up toots," he laughed. "You're no match for me."

"Toots?!" Farah fumed, firing again and this time, hitting him right between the eyes. From the start I'd had an unexplainable distaste for sand creatures of The Two Thrones type and suddenly I knew why: they were, without a doubt, the lamest Prince of Persia villains I had ever seen.

The sand creatures from the Sands of Time had been brainless morons, but still impressive nonetheless. They way they appeared out of nowhere, keeping you on the edge of your seat. The way they kept attacking no matter how many times you struck them down, the dagger of time their only weakness. Their sheer ruthlessness and complete lack of fear… Though not particularly bright, they were still a force to be reckoned with and awesome villains in their own way.

Then the second game was released and the baddies from Warrior Within completely blew me away. Though less indestructible and fearless than their predecessors, these had the forces of magic on their side. And even more: they were warriors. _Real_ warriors. Though it was nearly impossible to talk to them, they were highly intelligent and very, very cunning… some of them even possessing a sense of honor. Using brains rather than brawns, these guys were far more lethal than the earlier generation of sand creatures. No matter what the odds, they fought with skill, grace and a fiery determination that rivaled that of the Prince himself with ease.

I looked at Zervan's goons, who fighting a losing battle against the cloaked warrior woman. These ill-mannered, untalented, bulky grunts were a joke compared to Kaileena's servants and a disgrace to their species. They had no skill, no grace, no warrior's spirit. They were nothing but an embarrassing mockery.

'If I do ever get killed by a sand creature,' I thought grimly to myself, 'I want my assassin to be a Raider, a Harem Girl or even the Dark Prince. But like hell am I going to die at the hands of these pathetic losers!'

"Robin! Alex! Catch!" the cloaked woman suddenly yelled, throwing us both a blade that she had taken from the dead guards.

"Mom, do you know how to use a sword?" I asked and she smiled almost mischievously.

"Don't worry, you don't spend twenty years being married to an ex-soldier of the Empress without picking up a thing or two."

"Good," I said sheepishly, "because I think I forgot how to fight again."

"Take your brother and hide," she ordered, preparing for battle. "And whatever you do, stay out of sight. Let us handle this."

"But there's like twelve of them and only three of you!"

"Do as I say!" she cut me off, making clear there was no room for discussion. I muttered something underneath my breath and grabbed my brother, who was sticking out his tongue and making obscene gestures against one of the guards, seconds before Prince beheaded him with the Dagger of Time.

"Come on, twerp," I urged, ushering him inside a standing closet and closing the door behind us.

"Aw, man!" he whined. "Why don't we get to fight?"

"You really want to get out there? Just let mom, Prince and that crazy lady take care of it. We would only be getting in their way."

"I thought you were pretty awesome in that fight against Dark Dickhead," he said and I smiled wryly.

"Yeah… but I couldn't control it, like you can't control your powers."

"I can control them a little… If I try really, really hard."

"At the cost of your life-energy," I shook my head. "Forget it, Kai. You've screwed around enough with the timeline for one day."

He stayed quiet for a while, while I watched the fight through a crack in the door. Mom wasn't kidding when she said she had learned a thing or two from my father. She whirled around and darted gracefully around the battlefield, the sand creatures not even touching her. With lethal precision, she struck an unsuspecting archer, harvesting the arrows from his quiver and throwing them at the Indian Princess, who quickly stocked up and prepared for another round.

"You know what would be REALLY cool?" Kai whispered, his eyes gleaming with excitement.

"Do I _want_ to know?" I asked, glancing at the cloaked woman, who's fighting style seemed very familiar somehow. She whirled the twin blades around like they were natural extensions of her own limbs, then with a loud scream, suddenly trusted them up in the air, successfully impaling one of the Vizier's minions.

"If the Dahaka showed up and kicked Zervan's ass!"

I blinked, his words taking a full two seconds to sink in.

"Are you friggin' nuts?!" I hissed, bug-eyed. "The Dahaka is not 'cool'!"

"He so is!" Kai protested. "Dahaka chases were my favorite part of the game and yours too! Admit it!"

"Dahaka chases are only fun if you get to start over again after you've screwed up," I argued back. "When game over is _really_ game over, it kinda takes the fun out of it, don't you think? And with all that messing around with the timeline that you did, you can bet your head on it that you would be on top of his hitlist, if big, black and gruesome were ever to show his face."

I sighed, shaking my head at my brother's nativity.

"Fortunately for us, that Isra woman killed that thing years ago."

"But wasn't he on our side? I thought mom said he had switched to the good guys."

"That was after the Empress and the sands had been freed of their dark side. But now the sands are corrupted again, so it's a good thing he's dead. I've dealt with enough crap for the next ten years and a rabid Dahaka on our asses is the last thing we need right now."

"Ah… ehm… well, maybe it wouldn't be _that_ bad. It'd be great exercise and who needs sleep anyway?"

I froze for a good three minutes, my eyes narrowing slightly when I slowly turned to my little brother.

"Kaiiiiiiiii….."

"Don't kill the messenger!"

"ARE YOU FUCKING _KIDDING_ ME?!" I shrieked, forgetting that we were supposed to stay hidden.

"I had a vision!" he yelped. "The original Dahaka is dead, Isra killed him! But a disruption in the Timeline has caused it to spawn a new one!"

"How?! There is no magic in our world to sustain him! It would be like pulling a goldfish from the water and expecting it to suddenly grow lungs!"

"There WAS no magic in our world," Kai said, fear in his eyes. "Until _we_ unleashed the sands of time…"

In videogames, everything happens on cue. Cutscenes, boss battles, the convenient appearance of a new weapon… everything. And now that our world was turning into a videogame, things were no different. Kai had barely finished his sentence, or a terrifying growl made the very building itself tremble. Our red closet was drained of its color, and my face soon followed when I peeked through a crack… and came eye to eye with no one other than the guardian of the Timeline.

"S-s-sis?"

"Y-yeah?"

"I… I think w-we should s-start running…"


	14. Ghosts from the past

**A/N:** Updates going slow but steady! And if you _still_ don't get who the mystery woman is by the end of this chapter, I will reach through my screen, grab you by the collar and punch your face over the internet.

Seriously.

Hell hath no fury like a stressed fangirl desperately longing for summer vacation and operating on only three hours of sleep.

* * *

**Chapter 14: Ghosts from the past**

I screamed when the Dahaka turned to our closet and smashed it to pieces with a large, black tendril. A second tentacle followed to grab us, but Kai and I managed to duck underneath it just in time, scrambling behind the Prince. Yeah, cowardly, I know… but if you think that thing is intimidating on a screen, just wait until you come eye to eye!

"What… what is this beast?" Farah whispered, not taking her eyes of the dark creature.

"That 'beast' is supposed to be dead," Prince said grimly, then turned to the Dahaka. "Why have you returned? And why are you showing such hostility? Are you not on our side?"

"Uh guys…" I whispered nervously, "the previous Dahaka was on your team. This is a new one… and I don't think he just stopped by to say hello!"

The Dahaka moved forward, but shrieked in agony when he stepped into a puddle of water left by the sprinklers.

His howl seemed to snap everyone out of their shock. With a cry, human and sand creature alike made a mad dash for the exit, running for their very lives. The Dahaka roared and lashed out, grabbing the Vizier's soldiers who were right behind us. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap!! We were so royally screwed!

"Water!" Prince gasped. "We must find a waterfall to shield us from that beast!"

"Where?" I yelled back. "There are no time portals in our world! It isn't programmed for crazy Dahaka chases!"

The beast growled and Farah turned around, raising her bow and reaching for an arrow.

"Save your ammo!" I quickly said, grabbing her hand and dragging her along. "I doubt even a nuke would scratch that thing. Our only hope is to find water, and fast!"

"Ahh!" Kai suddenly yelped, wincing from pain. "There's a pebble in my foot! I can't run without my shoes!"

"Come on, kid! We have to keep moving!" the cloaked woman said, picking up my brother and carrying him on her back. I was surprised to see the added weight barely slowed her down. She sure was a lot stronger than she looked!

Not bothering with the broken elevator, we raced down the stairs and left the building, running onto the empty streets. The Dahaka was not one for manners and just punched a hole in the outer wall, jumping three stories down and creating a small crater when he crashed down on the pavement.

"Quick! Get into that car and pray it still has some juice left!" mom shouted, running towards a small Prius. The doors were still open, the alarm echoing through the streets, indicating that the owner had forgotten his keys… or was just never granted a chance to grab them.

"Mom, we're not clowns! There's no way that car can hold all six of us!" I protested.

"We'll just have to make it work and take seperate turns breathing," she said grimly, taking the driver's seat. "Get in! Hurry!"

Prince sat down next to my mother, while Farah and the mystery woman got in the back. I took the third and last seat, while Kai was forced to wriggle his way onto my lap while making sure not to bump his head against the ceiling. Thank god the boy was only 11 and related, or this position would have been VERY awkward.

"AkahaD eht sepacse eno on!" The demon roared behind us, stomping down one giant foot and making the streets tremble.

"Oh, we'll just see about that!" mom narrowed her eyes and hit the gas pedal, making the wheels screech in protest.

You can say a lot about hybrid cars, but they sure are fast! We zoomed across the asphalt with breakneck speed, the Dahaka rapidly falling behind. It was a close call when the chase was on foot, but there was no way he could match up to the 21th century way of transportation.

Well… as long as you did not ran out of juice, that was.

"Oh no…. no! no! no!" my mother suddenly yelled, pounding on the dashboard while the car began to slow down.

"Alex, what are you doing?!" Farah protested. "Keep driving!"

"I can't!" mom yelled, feverishly fumbling with the controls. "The car has ran out of power! We're dead in the water!"

"It's a hybrid!" I yelled, nervously eying the black dot on the horizon that was coming closer and closer. "Switch to diesel!"

"They don't work that way!"

"Well what do we do then? Get out and push?!"

The car slowed down even further and eventually came to a standstill, unlike the Dahaka who was now gaining on us at an alarming rate. I could already make out the shape of his horns and the dark silhouette grew larger with every passing moment.

"Okay, I estimate we have about 30 seconds until that that thing gets here and creams us. Any suggestions?" I squeaked nervously.

"There's no use trying to outrun that thing," Prince said grimly. "There are no bodies of water around, nor a waterfall we can hide behind. Sooner or later we will tire."

"But if there is no waterfall… then why not create one ourselves?" mom suddenly spoke up.

"You have a plan, Alex?"

"Maybe I do," she grinned and opened the car doors. "Quick into that house!"

We crossed the street and entered a small home. There was no door: someone or something could not have been bothered with knocking and had ripped it from its hinges.

"To the bathroom! Get into the tub!"

We did as she said, the Dahaka now very close behind. She got in last and fumbled frantically with the shower, hissing when the knob refused to budge.

"Let me," Prince said quickly, yanking forcefully at the faucet. Finally it gave way and a stream of ice cold water came from the showerhead.

"L-let's s-see how h-he plans to g-get to u-us n-now," mom declared triumphantly with clattering teeth. I quickly hugged myself, my shirt cold and soaking wet. Dammit, I _knew_ I should have worn a bra today…

Suddenly the bathroom door burst open, the guardian of the timeline roaring loudly, followed by an agonized howl when mom hosed him down.

"Make s-sure to w-wash behind your ears!" she exclaimed, not relenting her liquid onslaught. The Dahaka shrieked and tried to lash out, but his tendrils recoiled in pain when they came in contact with our drenched clothes. Realizing that he had lost this battle, he growled in frustration and dissolved in a cloud of black smoke. But the war was far from over… we all knew this for a fact.

"If this new Dahaka is anything like the old one, we should be safe for now," Prince said, visibly relieved. "It is not bright enough to trick us into a false sense of security."

"The Dahaka… was this the creature that chased you for seven years?" Farah asked Prince, cocking an eyebrow.

"Yes, it is. Though the original Dahaka is dead, a new one has apparently spawned to haunt us once more."

"So your story is true then… at least partly…" she mumbled and Prince's eyes widened.

"Do you see now?" he asked, excited. "The proof of our past has just stared us in the face. You must believe me!"

"Hold on, Prince," she warned, glaring at the royal. "The beast may prove that you have indeed once released the Sands of Time, but it does not prove any bond we may have shared."

"Oh, come on Farah!" I exclaimed. "Give it up! He digs you, you dig him, remember your past and start making out already!"

Everyone fell silent and you could almost hear crickets chirping in the background. The Indian Princess looked at me bug-eyed while Prince just groaned and put his face in his palm.

"Or you could just start dating first, you know… whatever floats your boat," I said, grinning sheepishly. Me and my perverted rabid fangirl tendencies…

"I.. I think the main thing we should focus on now is our survival," the royal coughed, looking away. Oh man… I knew he was going to kill me in my sleep. I just _knew_ it.

"You think this is a different Dahaka than the one that pursued me and your mother?" he finally asked me and I sighed, knowing it was time to come clean.

"Yeah… and his creation is kinda our fault. The sands have become corrupted and thus, the Dahaka has become corrupted as well. And since we freed the sands of time…"

"You did not free the sands of time," mom shook her head. "Maybe you two are responsible for unleashing them onto our world, but you did not _free_ them."

"Alex is right," Prince growled, balling his fists. "Zervan is the one who killed Kaileena! The Dahaka should be after _him_ now!"

"Unless…" I began, a horrible realization dawning on me.

"Unless what, Robin?"

"The Dahaka can't stand water, right? So I'm going to assume that he's actually some kind of super powered sand creature."

"It is possible," the royal nodded slowly. "It would make sense that a creature destined to guard the timeline, has spawned from the very sands of time themselves."

"Well, if Zervan can brainwash my father, then maybe…"

Prince's eyes widened and the royal let out a string of curses that would make the rating of the game go through the roof if Ubisoft ever found out.

"I fought for seven years to rid myself of this creature! And when I finally am freed of it, it causes my arch nemesis to come back from the dead! And now the two of them are conspiring against me?! Why gods?! Why are you doing this to me!? Why must fate taunt…"

"Oh, cut the drama, sandboy!" I snapped. "You're not the only one who's ass is on the menu, you know! Playing the emo card isn't going to get us out of this mess!"

"I am of royal blood," he barked back at me. "And you would be wise to show me more respect!"

"Oh yeah?!" I glared. "Well, guess what, buddy? You can take your respect and shove it where the sun doesn't…"

Suddenly, a weak groan caught our attention and all of turned to the cloaked woman who was still standing in the tub, swaying on her legs.

"Hey lady, are you alright?" Kai asked, when she held her head.

"Unfortunately… it appears that I am… no longer fully immune," she uttered, then collapsed in a crumpled heap.

"What's happening to her!?" Farah exclaimed, her face pale.

"I don't know!" mom answered. "I've only seen this once before, when Crow… Oh, crap! It's the water!! Quick! Get her out of that tub!" she suddenly yelled, grabbing the woman's shoulders. Prince took hold of her feet and together they lifted her out of the bath and onto the stone floor tiles.

"How can she be harmed by ordinary tap water?" I asked, while mom checked the woman's pulse and tried to bring her back to her senses.

"We'll ask questions later, but right now we need to get her dry as fast was we can. Kai, grab a blow-dryer! Prince, get me a robe and all the towels you can find! Farah, Robin! Help me get her out of these wet clothes!"

I nodded bleakly and started with her boots. Strangely, they wouldn't come off and seemed attached to the rest of her outfit by what looked like a metal girdle. The hell….?

I looked to my side and paled when I saw Farah remove the rest of the wet cloak, revealing the woman's face. No… it couldn't be…

"Alex? Robin? Why are you looking at her like that? Have you seen this woman before?"

"Yeah, we have," mom said hoarsely, looking at the unconscious black-haired soldier of the Empress. "But she's supposed to be dead…"


End file.
